{"id":206197,"date":"2025-10-17T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206197\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T09:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:11:07","slug":"england-paceman-mark-wood-quietly-confident-for-ashes-opener-against-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206197\/","title":{"rendered":"England paceman Mark Wood ‘quietly confident’ for Ashes opener against Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

England fast bowler Mark Wood says he is “quietly confident” of being fit for the first Test of the Ashes series in Australia.<\/p>\n

Wood has not played since a Champions Trophy defeat by Afghanistan in February and had an operation on a left knee injury in March. <\/p>\n

The Champions Trophy and tour of India that preceded it was the 35-year-old’s return from an elbow injury that had kept him out of action since August 2024.<\/p>\n

“It was a frustrating summer,” Wood told the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast., external<\/a> “I didn’t get to play any cricket and my knee, at times when you think that you’re just about ready to play, it was not just quite there.<\/p>\n

“I got knocked back a couple of times, but in the tent [training camp] it’s been going well. I’ve had the speed gun out and the pace is getting up there.”<\/p>\n

The first match of the Ashes starts on 21 November in Perth, with England aiming to win their first Test series in Australia since 2010-2011. <\/p>\n

“Hopefully, I’m in form, bowling well in the practice games and in the nets, and can put my hand up for that game [Ashes opener],” added Wood, whose last Test outing was against Sri Lanka 14 months ago.<\/p>\n

“The rehab hasn’t just been a straight curve, it’s been a bit up and down, but I’m in a good position now where i’m hoping to kick on for that game.<\/p>\n

“I never want to give an answer where I say, ‘Yes, I’m pumped, I’m ready’. I’m in a confident place at the minute and feeling a lot more positive, so I’m quietly confident.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England fast bowler Mark Wood says he is “quietly confident” of being fit for the first Test of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-206197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}