Mark Wood's bid to fill the England Ashes bowling berth vacated by the injured Jimmy Anderson got off to an unconvincing start on Monday as he began training ahead of his teammates for the Trent Bridge Test.
As Australia trained in the afternoon on one side of the arena in Nottingham on the other was Wood, who missed the Edgbaston Test due to injury. Steve Finn excelled in the third-seamer position Wood had occupied for the first two Tests.
With a number of officials, including fast-bowling coach Ottis Gibson, looking on the right-armer bowled for about 25 minutes, initially quite freely but progressively showing signs he was still hampered by his ankle injury. Wood then did a number of stretching exercises aimed at helping his ankle. He returned to the bowling crease for a minor drill, jogging in two or three paces and then throwing the ball. After the first drill he grimaced and left the field, marking the end of the fitness test-type session.
While Wood has two more days of training to prove his fitness, his performance on Monday was not heartening given Cook confirmed before the Edgbaston Test that selectors were taking a cautious approach to Wood given his physical trait of struggling to cope with a number of consecutive first-class matches.
Wood was the only England player to train on Monday. From Tuesday the two bowlers added to the squad in place of Anderson, Liam Plunkett and Mark Footitt, will have an opportunity to press their claims when training resumes, which will be especially significant if Wood is unfit.
Plunkett, 30, played for England in their recent limited-overs series against New Zealand, but has not played a Test more than a year. Left-armer Footitt, 29, is uncapped for England in any format, but is reputed to have genuine pace. The Australians missed the chance to face him because he was withdrawn from Derbyshire's team for their recent tour match against Australia.
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