Mark Wood bowled ferociously against Sri Lanka and Milan Rathnayake showed incredible character to score a debut 50 – but here is the key to playing fast bowling, writes NASSER HUSSAIN

I don’t know anyone who likes fast bowling.

It’s just a matter of learning to respond better to the situation and ultimately trying to get through it.

Mark Wood broke Kevin Sinclair’s arm during the West Indies series with a 92mph bumper and went one better on Wednesday with a 93mph bouncer to dismiss Kusal Mendis.

Our Sky cameras calculated that it took just 0.46 seconds from leaving Wood’s hand to reaching the bat. That’s ridiculously fast, but you have to believe in your reactions.

For me it was important to react to the ball, rather than shooting beforehand.

You’ll be amazed at how well you can react when someone throws a ball at you. You have to keep a close eye on the ball though, because that’s the only way to react in time.

And you have to have the courage and the fighting spirit and realise that you are going to take blows, like Milan Rathnayake did. He came in eighth, took a lot of blows to his hands, got the physio and went on.

Sri Lanka knew it with Wood and Gus Atkinson so you have to prepare yourself. There is no point going into the net and getting a few soft half volleys thrown at you.

Before my first tour of the Caribbean as a 21-year-old, Geoffrey Boycott had us in the nets at Headingley with young bowlers bowling from 16 yards and he told me to wear a chest pad. I’ve worn a chest pad ever since and psychologically it helped.

Graham Thorpe had balls thrown at him from different distances for an overseas tour. Before he went to the Caribbean he had people throw tennis balls at him and he ducked and dove and took it. It can look ugly but you have to find a way.

Both Graham Gooch and Robin Smith were great players of pace but even they got confused. There is that famous photo of our physio Laurie Brown and Gooch’s face in agony as he was famously hit by Ezra Moseley in Trinidad and broke his hand.

Steve Waugh always seemed uncomfortable, but he rarely succeeded.

You have to have a plan. Are you going to fight it off, are you going to avoid it, or are you going to face it?

Mark Butcher was great at diving and you could see the air go out of his opponents. Others like Alec Stewart backed himself to take it on and his famous double hundreds in 1994 in Barbados showed the reward.

The problem is they’re not as short as Wood’s delivery to Mendis. Wood is slippery, so his bouncers are often aimed at you rather than those wasted ones that go over your head. In Jofra Archer’s time with Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019, he was so close to the stumps and the bouncer was always by the body, so it was so difficult to duck or swing away.

Michael Holding used to say that fast bowling makes you do strange things. Look at how Atkinson got Prabath Jayasuriya out. Bouncer, bouncer, bouncer and then a full pitched up delivery that put him in a terrible position.

Shoaib Akhtar would consistently hit 85mph and then suddenly he would throw one at 95mph and you would be fooled. He broke my finger at Lord’s with that delivery.

I was on the other side when Allan Donald threw that famous spell to Mike Atherton on an absolutely swollen pitch and Atherton got him out. You’ve got to show some ticker.

In a tour match at the WACA in Perth, I remember Matt Nicholson hitting Butch right between the eyes and when I walked off the field there was blood on the crease. That’s where it takes guts when someone like Butch is being carried off the field on a stretcher.

That’s why I admire Rathnayake on his debut, playing with that pace and enthusiasm at Old Trafford. It’s one of the most bouncy pitches in the country and a far cry from the pitches he grew up on.

He got his cap in the morning from Kumar Sangakkara and I think Kumar would have been extremely proud of the character he showed on day one.