DESPERATE TO MAKE A MARK

After England’s dismal showing at the World Cup, fast bowling ace Wood is back in India and fired up to deliver

THE conditions will be spin-friendly but that will not stop the ferocity of the pace. 

And when speed is mixed with a desire to make the type of statement Mark Wood hopes to, it is a combination England might thrive upon.

Hyderabad, with temperatures in the 80s, is the setting tomorrow for the First Test of a tour where the hosts, for now, will be without Virat Kohli and the visitors will be missing Harry Brook.

And it is a return to India for Wood just two months after being in the team which failed

to make the knockout stages of the ODI World Cup, an experience which included losing by 100 runs to the home nation.

Wood says England's World Cup blowout "really hurt" and he is desperate to put things right on his return to Indian soil with the Test team.