With less than a month before the tournament in India, England is taking precautionary steps to replace the injured Rashid and Mark Wood in the 15-member provisional squad.
England belittled Rashid-Wood’s fitness concerns
Ahead of World Cup 2023, The England team is confident about the tournament despite the injury concerns of Adil Rashid and Mark Wood. England is currently playing an ODI series where New Zealand leads the series 2-1. They will be playing against the same opponents in the opening game of the World Cup.
Both players made a single appearance in the first ODI in Cardiff where Rashid took a wicket in the first ball. Young Will was sent out with bold after which Rashid left the field due to his cramp after bowling three overs in his spell. He returned to the field to bowl further overs but was not featured due to a tightness in his calf.
On the other hand, Mark Wood has been sidelined from action since the fifth Ashes Test and has been working to regain his match fitness. He had a sore heel and was ruled out of action in the first three ODIs of the series.
Chris Woakes said, “He’s a big asset for us going into the World Cup. You don’t want to risk him too soon. Bruised heels, I remember having mine: you think it’s going to be a week or two and in the end, they end up being quite long injuries that can always reoccur.”
When asked about Mark Wood will be needed in the upcoming fourth ODI against NZ to have some practice before the World Cup Woakes said, A player with Mark’s experience can go straight in. He’s not the sort of guy who needs a load of game time.
“Myself, I like games under my belt to build up confidence and get up to speed. Actually, Mark is one of the guys I’m very envious of because he can steam in and bowl at 93mph (150kph) as we saw in the Ashes. I don’t think it’s too much of a worry if he doesn’t play in this series but hopefully he plays the last one [at Lord’s on Friday].”
Chris Woakes dismissed three for 31 in an eight-over spell on the third ODI at Oval and said he was getting used to rhythms in ODI cricket again. “It was nice to bowl an eight-over spell and pick up some important wickets,” he said.
“You want to keep putting in performances like that to keep getting the nod, selection-wise,” he said.
“From a fitness point of view, these bilateral series are quite tight and there’s a lot of travelling. Although there’s a lot of travel at the World Cup, it looks like there’s more space between games so it does give you a bit more of a routine to recover and come back stronger and be fit for the next game,” he concluded.
England and New Zealand will be playing their fourth ODI match on September 15 at Lord’s. After the completion of the ODI match against NZ, England will be playing a three match ODI series against Ireland starting on September 20.
