Mark Wood replaces the retired Jimmy Anderson in England’s only change for second Test against West Indies, as Ben Stokes’s side look to wrap up series win after dominant victory at Lord’s
- England won the opening Test at Lord’s as Jimmy Anderson retired
- Mark Wood will replace him in the only change to the England squad at Trent Bridge
- Victory in Nottingham would mean a series win for Ben Stokes’ team
England have recalled Mark Wood for Thursday’s second Test match against the West Indies at Trent Bridge after Jimmy Anderson withdrew.
Wood’s selection means that Nottinghamshire’s speedy Dillon Pennington will miss his debut. The management is keen to show the tourists the pace of Wood and Gus Atkinson, who took 12 wickets on their debut at Lord’s last week.
With captain Ben Stokes able to bowl again after knee surgery, Wood’s return has been accelerated, and he can be more easily deployed in short attacking games with five rather than four front-line bowlers.
Zak Crawley, meanwhile, has played down concerns about his failure to convert fifties into hundreds, insisting he has one goal: ‘To win more games for England.’
The 76 he made in England’s innings win at Lord’s was his fifth score in the seventies in his last 12 innings, yet he can boast only four hundreds from 45 matches and a modest average of 33.
Mark Wood has been named in the England squad that will take on the West Indies at Trent Bridge
He replaces Jimmy Anderson after his international retirement last week
A win for Ben Stokes’ team would secure a series win with one test remaining
Meanwhile, opening batsman Zak Crawley has insisted he is not worried about not being able to convert fifties into hundreds in the past 12 months
But only Joe Root has scored more Test runs in the Bazball era than Crawley’s 1,600, while head coach Brendon McCullum’s assertion two years ago that Crawley would ‘never be a consistent cricketer’ has been belied by a run of starts: since the start of last summer he has been dismissed in single figures just three times in 22.
“The average certainly doesn’t bother me,” Crawley said ahead of Thursday’s second Test at Trent Bridge. “But I’d like to win more games for England. I’ve played some really good shots but that’s my main target: how many match-winning performances can I produce for my team? I probably haven’t won that many games.
‘I’ve certainly never looked at my average and thought, “Oh, I hope I can get it higher.” England is a pretty tough place to open, and with half your games here. I don’t get caught up in that sort of thing, otherwise I get pretty down myself.’
“I had 76 last week and we won, so I was happy with that. If I had had 76 and we lost, I would have asked myself if I could have gotten more.”
England team: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wkt), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir.