Senior pacer Mark Wood advised the England bowling attack on Monday to prioritize taking wickets instead of worrying about runs against India’s ultra-aggressive batting unit.
So far in the series, Wood has demonstrated decent bowling throughout his first international assignment since July. The previous match in Chennai saw Jofra Archer concede 60 runs from four overs as Tilak Varma dismantled his bowling.
Under skipper Suryakymar Yadav India have moved their T20 performances forward and England needs to devise a strategy to face them in the upcoming third T20I match on Tuesday. India lead the five match series 2-0.
“We’ll just be trying to take wickets. Wood explained before the third T20I that McCullum wants the team to focus on game impact through wickets instead of worrying about run totals.
Our bowling performance as a team was strong during the previous match. Our bowling strategy focused on taking wickets since we knew the target they needed to reach. Even though some deliveries cost us a few runs, our main strategy to win remained focused on getting the opposition out.”
The Indian spinners have caused England difficulties throughout the series while Wood’s pace attack has troubled the host team’s hitters. The pitch at Rajkot generally supports high-scoring matches which turn into a contest between two batting teams.
When discussing spin bowling we have Adil Rashid who stands among the best spinners globally while delivering as our key weapon since he appears almost guaranteed to take wickets every match. According to Wood he remains an essential element of our attacking lineup and should not be discounted.
“And we’ve got a lot of options: We have multiple choices with Livingstone and Bethell who can join us if he returns. The pace bowling team maintained their focus throughout the match against the Indian batters despite needing to adjust just one or two overs throughout the game.
“One guy played exceptionally well , if the luck was slightly different: “The player delivered an exceptional performance but a slight change in luck could have changed things: he narrowly missed hitting a six over the wicketkeeper with a top-edge, which could have gone straight up for a different result.” – the 35-year-old explained.
After returning to play following his long break Wood feels good about his pace but needs to improve his accuracy.
I felt inconsistent during my performance because I executed some good deliveries with excellent pace but failed to achieve my desired accuracy. My lack of play since August makes it understandable that I only managed to participate in two games during that time.
By playing more matches I expect to improve my performance in leading up to the 50-over games and the Champions Trophy. I will continue to give my all while working on enhancing my performance during training sessions. Hopefully that narrows my focus even more.”
On India’s young guns including Varma and Abhishek Sharma, Wood added: “They play good shots. India maintains batting strength through seasoned veterans alongside new emerging players which does not distract my focus which remains solely on England.