"He's ok, You saw him bowl today": England's assistant coach Trescothick on Mark Wood's fitness
Jul 30, 2023
London [UK], July 31 : England's assistant coach Marcus Trescothick on Sunday assured that Mark Wood is fully fit to bowl and has little niggle as he bowled only three overs in the fourth day of the fifth Ashes Test match.
On a rain-affected day, Wood only bowled three overs of the 38 overs that England bowled. Australia finished their penultimate day at 135/0 where Ben Stokes did not introduce Wood till the second session of the day.
Wood has played three Test and took 13 wickets with an average of 20.38.
Speaking to the media, Trescothick said, "He's OK, You saw him bowl today. He's obviously had the little niggle that he's got. He's obviously had a bit of rest and put his feet up. It's not 100 per cent - of course it's not. It's not going to be probably for two or three weeks from now, but we've got a little bit out of him and will continue to try to do that again tomorrow."
"I think pretty much like everybody, there's little aches and pains that are going off the back of a big five-Test series. Both teams will be travelling in the same way at the moment. But yeah, everyone is fit to bowl. It was a tactical decision," he added.
On the other hand, Australia's assistant coach Michael di Venuto said that they have a strategy to play slow to make England bowlers bowl more overs.
"Certainly, part of our plan is to get them to keep coming back and bowling more overs," Di Venuto. "I'm not sure of those tactics, whether he is carrying an injury, whether he can only bowl a certain amount of overs, I'm not sure. There was some spin, so [I was] not surprised to see the two offspinners wheeling away at one end."
Khawaja and Warner reached their respective half-centuries as Australia looked absolutely solid at the end of a rain-interrupted second session during day four of the match, inching towards a 150-run opening partnership.
At the end of the day's play, Australia were at 135/0, with Khawaja (69*) and Warner (58*) unbeaten.
