Test Match Special - Mark Wood's greatest hits

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Simon Mann is alongside former England fast bowler Mark Wood in the week he announces his retirement from international cricket.Wood discuss is favourite moments in an England shirt, including *that* Usman Khawaja dismissal in the 2023 Ashes.

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Visit BBC.com forward slash subscription. to find out more. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. So Mark Wood is with us today in the week that he announced his international retirement and we thought we'd celebrate his career with England by going through some of Woody's greatest hits. Guarja is on his way. One stump on the ground, massive explosion out there and a big explosion. in the West Stand as well.

Wood has done it for England. Destroyed Kowaj's dumps. As Wood springs into action, goes wide of the crease. Bowled in. Bowling! And England have regained the ashes. Dumps are shattered. England are in little groups jumping up and down.

Here is Wood rushing into ball. He strikes him on the passage of Schaufer, LBW. They've run for a leg by. He's giving him out. Umpire Rasmus took a long time to think about that. about that and Wood has come back and he's got a wicket straight away. Here goes Wood and bowls to him. Very full. He went through the drive through the offside, thick edge onto his stumps. And Mark Wood, where have you been?

He's taken five for 34. Well, some memorable moments. There are just a few. There are plenty more as well. Mark Wood alongside me. Let's start where it all started, really. Yeah. Woody back in 2015 that first summer for you yeah where in your fifth test match you took the wicket that won the ashes what was that summer like can you remember it clearly yeah well my first record was Brandon McCollum believe it or not called third man that classic fastball has dismissal where he tried to pull me to square leg and it sort of looped over to Joe Rood of third man yeah I remember the summer well actually it was a bit of a whirlwind I couldn't believe

things like business flights and you got your own hotel room and I traveled everywhere with Ben Stokes and I played with people like Jimmy Anderson and Alastair Cook and these guys it was just like this is amazing I was almost like just in a whirlwind of happiness really he couldn't believe that I got to play with these guys and then that bit in 2015 against Australia it was a massive hype about the series and Australia had great players and these young guys coming through Particularly remember myself, like I'd just been Australia, maybe three years ago, playing club cricket. And Michael Clark had gotten like 300 while I was there against, I didn't know if it was South Africa or Pakistan or somebody.

And then I was suddenly bowling at him. And I was like, oh my word, it's Michael Clark. I can't believe I'm bowling at this guy. But yeah, very fond memories. And then to take the winning wicket in that series to win the ashes. That's like a dream come true, isn't it? When you're a kid, you always want to play in those series. so at the time it didn't seem like that huge a deal but the longer my career is going on

I was like oh my word that's like it's there forever which is a lovely feeling did you feel really at home in that side in 2015 I mean it was that was your fifth test match actually in which you took the winning wicket no I didn't feel at home I felt um embraced by the group I felt the the lads were fantastic and loved being in but you were so um whipped up in it all and like it happened so fast I was playing for England and you're just getting used to everything. You don't really know what it's all about. You know, it all just sort of happened in a bit of a frenzy. I was playing at these iconic grounds and they were all full

and the Barmi Ami had a song for me and it was all just like, wow, this is like so amazing. And it isn't until, obviously, I had the harder times and the hardship, you then realize how good those times are. But that first summer, it was so fresh and I just tried to embrace it all. I just remember thinking at the time that, is this what it's like? I remember at the time thinking, is this what it's like?

Because it's amazing. And yeah, getting my cap and playing against Australia, the ashes, the exposure, the limelight of it, like the media hype and being in the papers, and my family cut now paper cuttings of us and things. And it was just like it was something that you would dream of, really. And of course you were there to watch Stuart Broad take those eight wickets as well.

on the first stand. That was the match in which England clinched the ashes and you took the winning wicket. Yeah, I got David Warner, I think that in and he got eight and Stephen Finn got Neville. I think that was it,

but it was just special to witness that really. I remember I being a fine leg for a bit of it and then when Finney came on I went mid on and he just he didn't even have to say anything to him

there was nothing to say he was just bowling that well there was one thing he asked me just before he got lying out who was the last week. He was like, Do you think that I was like not do the same thing and he got him out and I was like that was an incredible spell out the worst thing about that is I had to be night watchman and I hated that role more than anything So the next morning I've managed that because you can you can bat yeah but I just I feel like you're a standing target

So it is a as a as a normal player have you come out during any other time you can just play it can you watch a ball hit the ball But as night watchman your job is to protect somebody so you're essentially just a A visible target for a bow and I used to hate that feeling if I've got a sort of like just stand here. But I managed to get through and then the next day Johnson started off, Mitchell Johnson. I remember I hit him for four through the offside

and he told me that I was going to be dead the next ball and I remember looking up and I remember exactly when my family was sat and I was thinking, do I really want to be here? This is everything I've wanted to be and now Mitchell Johnson who I've just watched tear England apart in 2013 is now telling us that I'm dead.

I remember tapping my bad thing. If I just tap it, every time I get low at it, it'll definitely go over me. I remember a rude touch and close me. He was like, great shot, what are you? I feel like, cover drive. He was like, what's wrong? I said I'm dead, mate.

He was like, just watch the ball. You remember what happened? I think he pitched it up again, and I left it and give it the old, ooh. Like, oh yeah, that was a good one. Please don't bounce me. Yeah, but very fast. Yeah, you talk about him bowling fast.

You got, obviously, you had that in your armory as well, so you can retaliate it. So people hurl it down at you. You can hurl it back at them. I wasn't that quick at that time, though. I could bowl 90 miles on hour, and I bowled the odd spell, but I was mainly late 80s, maybe the odd 90. Like if it was in the late in my career,

then definitely I would have dished it out more back. But certainly in the early part of my career, I didn't really know or believe how good I could be. At times I did struggle with self-belief. So I think around that time, it was just, like I said, all so fresh that I was just rolling with it. It wasn't until those tough times that I then started, or when I changed my run-up, that I was more aware and experienced as a player had to know what worked for me and what didn't.

Yeah. And so that was the sort of really key thing, was changing your run-up. Yeah. And then after that, I mean, it was... Essentially had two different in-k careers, really. My first one, where I was in and out the team, had some good moments, but also, you know, struggled a lot with ankle injury and also, like, form at times. So performance, I didn't perform that well at times.

and also felt that I constantly had to push myself off that stop-start run-up to get the most out of myself. Whereas as soon as I went off the longer run, I had much more momentum, much more flow and freedom, and the ability to bowl consistently quicker for longer. Yeah, well, let's fast forward to some of those spells. 2019 in St. Lucia in the Caribbean, February 2019, what match figures of 6 for 93?

Was that the... I remember watching that on television, Was that the fastest, do you think? I think that was the fastest. I could be biased because I really felt that was the breakthrough moment in terms of my career. But I certainly think that just when I was watching the ball carry off the Knicks, like Root felt a long way back,

a couple of catches at slips. So I think that was probably the quickest I felt. The Wanderas, obviously, really quick pitch. Headingly here, I had plenty of carry, but St. Lucia, to me, was the one where I felt that it was the first. first time off my long run and I felt different to how I'd felt before. What's it like when you're as a fastball and when you're in rhythm and it's coming out just

perfectly? What's that feeling like? It's just you feel weightless, your legs, you feel like you're never tired, the ground doesn't feel heavy, you feel like you're just picking up speed and then it feels like you've got all this momentum and loose energy to just release almost a bit like you feel like a surge through your body and then it's like a whip or a catapult that out your fingers. and that you've got this extra, I don't know, something penned up inside you that you can release,

whereas the times where you don't feel as good, you're pushing it, but it's not there. Those days, like the St. Lusha Day, I didn't have to try. I was almost just like nothing else mattered. The stumps didn't move. The batter was irrelevant. The field, Root could have spread the field anywhere,

and I wouldn't have cared. It was just like you were just, I was so open to my action and just, I remember that feeling of papa with my feet when I was landing, like, Papa, It almost just was almost like, I guess, something like a bullet or something releasing from me. And it just had that zip off it that I could still remember the feeling of my fingers

because the balls in the Westonies were slightly different, different feel of the seam. And still, if I shut my eyes, feel that feeling of the seam ripping out my fingers on that tour. Do you have any sympathy for batters in that situation? Absolutely none. Absolutely none. No. I wouldn't. My job is to get them out.

my jobs to bowl fast and the bats were bigger, the boundaries are smaller. I've been plenty of games where I've thought it's not fairly almost. So on those moments when it is in your favour, absolutely make the most of it. And what are your teammates saying to you? Are they sensing you that you're right in the zone, if you like, in the situation? Yeah, well, Malan never used to say anything. He was never bothered. But the rest of them were pretty good.

No, they would obviously be jeed up. Every time I would come on, it was faster. They would like, I'd say the odd smile or that was gas or that was rapid or they would like give me a nudge or the I would sneakily look up with the scoreboard. Especially in England that I could see the speed when I was looking and stuff. So amazing feeling they're both fast and your teammates seem to get jeed up by it as well. And it's nice when we've played against Australia and things and they've got quick ball as in that you can dish some back out or the batter certainly like that you can dish it out after they have had to have that as well. What did you like to see on the big screen in terms of a number? And I used to get knocked.

When I lengthen my run up, if it was below 90 mile now, I'd get annoyed. But the days later on my career, because I got faster and faster, the days where I would, I'd be most happy would be if I pushed 95 plus. But the real thing that upset is was if it went below 90 in the later part of my career. Yeah. But let's move on to 2019 and the World Cup. you're from the northeast and there was a really key game for England

in the northeast. Against New Zealand it was a game England had to win you picked up wickets what was that day like for you? Do you remember the morning thinking how crucial this game is? Yeah we had a chat

from the psychologist David Young about at Edgebaston when we played India because basically we needed to win every game from there it was like a knockout so we beat India in a really good game and then we went

Chelsea Street to play in New Zealand again having to win and yeah obviously home ground it was nice because there was a lot of my family and friends there getting to sing the national anthem it was a full crowd as well which was great and every wife I fielded on the boundary I got a great reception again lovely

and the most vital thing isn't actually in my figures but I managed to run Kane Williamson out with a little brush of my finger and I've got tiny hands as well but he does not look he is actually but he brushed my finger and I ran him out at the non-strike as in ball was hit back me and ran him out. And that was a huge wicket at the time

because he was thorn on our side for ages, Caine Williamson. I always struggled to bowl at him. He always made me feel like it was bowling really slowly. So that was a massive moment in the game. To end with three wickets there and an important win was great for me. I was having a fairly decent tournament

or World Cup at that stage. I'd managed to get a few wickets in the bank. So it felt like I was contributing the team and when you're in World Cups, you always want to feel like you are contributing. BBC Radio 5 Live. With a subscription to the BBC website and app, you can now get early access to your favorite BBC podcasts. Listen to shows like, you're dead to me, in our time, good bad billionaire, and more.

Plus, there's all the other great benefits you get with a BBC subscription, from live streaming the BBC News Channel and acclaimed documentaries to in-depth analysis and features. Visit BBC.com forward slash subscribe to find out more. Yeah, three for 34. You played, what, 10 matches in that World Cup. England won the game against New Zealand. They made their way through to the final. I mean, probably actually the best one-day performers England have ever produced Pound for Pound was in the semi-final against Australia. It just walks at the start ball like a dream, yeah. Well, Australia, you know, top nation, taken down, thrashed in the semi-final in a huge game, huge pressure game.

Something struck me about, something you said about the 2019 World Cup final. and I can totally understand it as well that you kind of hated the game or you didn't enjoy the game at all. I didn't enjoy the day. The ending obviously amazing and wish I got to get that feeling again, but the actual game itself was horrible

to be a part of. I remember feeling like the emotions of we're winning and we're losing, we're winning and we're losing. Up and down the whole day it was a rollercoaster and it was horrible at times to be involved

and I'm sure it was awful to watch as well as an England fan but to playing it, you're constantly trying to grab it back and I remember feeling so emotionally drained at the end of the game because you realize the weight and how big the game is. It wasn't until we got the ground and then you start seeing the boards around the ground of World Cup Final 2019 and so far.

So yeah, it wasn't a nice day but overall amazing feeling at the end. And you were involved in the runout at the end, weren't you? It was almost impossible situation you were in really. You just had to go for it. Yeah, and of course I came out wearing a suit of armour, which probably didn't help my running boat. Yeah, a great bit to be with Stokesy, me, me, Dorme made, to have that at the end with him. Obviously, I played no part in that really at the end,

but Stokesy was immense in that bit. And to really get it up close is something like, that's quite special, actually, because I can still remember the look in his eyes, how in the zone he was. I went to speak to him when I came running out, and he didn't say anything he was so in the zone. I just said, I'm going to run no matter what I'm going to run.

And just to see now that I've finished. my career and there's a new team and we'll all look back I look back now and think wow that was amazing to be so close to Stokes even he was in that zone and in that mood and to describe it to people and see how like how he was sweating and the way he was looking around the field I could just tell he was so on and when he's in that mood and I've seen that a few times even Durham Academy and Durham first team and all that England games I've seen that look from him before but that day he was he was properly on and we own we own big style have you watched that game back much I kind of I've watched a little bit of

with my bowling and the amount of times I can't, why am I doing there? What am I doing here? Oh, just hit the top of the stumps. But at the time you're so caught up in emotion in the game, I was probably like over, how would you, over like, stimulated or over, like, I was over the top

for my first spell because it was like, it's a World Cup final, I've got to bowl fast, get me on. Well, actually, if I just settled into bowling normally, I probably would have bowled a lot better. So I've watched a little bit of it and got annoyed, and then my second spell was a lot better, but I can't watch it again. again.

The day worked out fine. Yeah, in the end. In the end. It was a bizarre day in 2019 World Cup final. Let's move on to Johannesburg. That's a nice pitch to bowl, is it?

Fastball. It took 9 for 100 in the match there in 2020, 5 for 46. Is that the sort of surface you'd like to carry around with you? Yeah, that was the one. I mean, it had true carry, true bounce.

I remember facing Anrich Norquia there and he bowled me a bouncer and I remember the ball coming past me and hearing like that as it went past me and I almost look back over my shoulder and as I ducked it just went past us and as I looked back Quentin de Kock took like jumped and took it

over his head and I was honestly so scared at that moment but then some of clickness to think I'm going to bowl fast here because I could tell from just the way that that ball had come past me that this was going to be a good pitch for me to ball on and I got

Peter Milana I think early Doors, I think it was a quick ball. And from then, I felt in great rhythm, great. And he got a wicket laid on, a night watchman as well, and Bavumar as well, that day and then moved in the next day to get five wickets. And I remember thinking that this pitch is something that I'd like to carry around with me, definitely.

Yeah, Peter Milan, caught behind by Butler for 15. He got de Kock as well, Bovuma. You've also got Norquhar out, so you gave him a bit of his own back. I'm turning that ball past your ear. I love that sound. I can totally understand. I can hear you at in the middle there.

It's quite frightening though, because when you stand on the wicket, it's so hard and fast there that it's almost like marbly glass or real hard wood. So you stand on it and you tap your bat and the bat doesn't make a noise. It makes like a tch-t-t because it's so hard.

So as he was coming in, I remember feeling my spikes and thinking, I need to stand a little bit taller here because I'm going to slide over. and the ball was at me before I even realized. That's how quick the pitch is. So it fizzes past year. So he bowls it short. You sort of say that he stuck his head and bowled it short.

And then before I realized, the ball is at my face. So I just literally got my head out of the way. And there was a replay on the screen. And I literally just got out the way. And I think me and broadly smacked a few after that because our adrenaline was that high that he'd just gone off. That every other ball had come on were like, right, let's just play a million shots here. And so how many we can get before he comes back on.

So I knew from that moment that it was going to be a quick, Quick deck. Do your teammates in a situation like that look at you in the same way that I'd say on a fifth day wear it and you look at the spinners and they think you can win us the game here? Are you conscious that your teammates are saying Woody this pitch it's like lightning? This is your day? I suppose so because you're at altitude as well aren't you? And the high felt so the ball carries further as well at altitude. So maybe they do think that.

I mean that's not set. It's not like someone in club critic goes your day to day pal. This is your picture day. It's not like that. They just, you talk tactically and what's her, but that was certainly a pitch. I love bowling on. I remember Stuart Broad saying to me, look, you make your pay here because not often do you have the chance to get 10 wickets. I was close to getting 10 in the game.

Not often does that happen to you, so really, really make this count. I got a couple down the leg side around the wicked ball and aggressive bowling late on. And I remember I got Van der Duesen, I think, for 99 in the second-in's court at mid-off from around the wicket. So we set up the bouncer plan, double bluffed him. and was it 90? You got 98, yeah. And double bluffed him, and that was a great week because he was giving us a bit of verbals back. And the whole team were up against him in that little period.

That's fascinating. So you're rushing in on a fast pitch and the batter is giving it back to you. What sort of things are they saying? He wasn't given it. I can't remember if he was giving it to me, but it was certainly a lot of verbals at that point between our team and their team, Duplice. He was unhappy about something, and Vaderduson got involved.

and the way that Rassie commands his presence that the crease a little bit winds people up a little bit and he has a little bit of verbals here and there so a few of the lads were desperate for me to should we say stick one up one or should we say they want to me to ball quickly at him and we set up this bouncer plan

and we pitched it up outside off something he drove it straight to cover so that was a nice wicket for the whole team. So yeah great memory there and what about Hobart 2022 where you well you had a a really decent Ashes series

and that match you took 6 for 37 in the second innings. What's that like though when you get to an Ashley series and you're bowling well you're taking wickets

but you're losing in Australia. Is it kind of bittersweet to do that? No, it's disappointing because you're losing and it's frustrating because you're trying

to play your part and you're still not it's still not happening but you still have the pride in your own performance like even though you're getting beat you know there's no way that I would let my performance drop

but try and try any less or anything that year. Have to have pride in your performance. We're getting beat, but I wanted a day for Spoons. Chris Silverwood at the time, who was under a lot of pressure and getting peltas from everywhere. And I wanted to make sure that I was putting in it for him because he was really good with me. He was backing me up, John Lewis as well,

the bowling coach at the time. We had guys, COVID wasn't easy. We had guys going down with injury. And I played four out of the five games there, which is probably the most I've done in a series. And I was really proud of that, actually, to get through that amount of work. I was so tired at the end of that spell.

It was the last innings of the whole tour. But I come out with my best figures. I thought I bowled well. All tour that actually, and I didn't get many wickets, but then that last game I managed to get six in the second innings and really give me a boost and bizarrely some respect from the Australians. That was going to bring my next question, actually. How important is that?

Obviously, the English media, they follow you around and they know what you're able to do. Go there and do that. I think the respect that I kept trying, even though we were losing, that I kept charging in and kept bowling quickly. Even on the boundary line at one point,

though, saying, get yourself on, what do you want to see you on? And stuff of that, which is bizarre, but nice. And even their lads were complimentary at the end of the series. Justin Lang, I remember being in the lift with him.

He just put his hand up to me, not to shake my hand, but put it up more in like a cup in motion and grabbed a tight and pulled me, and he went, respect. And I was like, that was pretty cool. something I'll carry that was a really nice moment actually. Because the other thing is where you don't necessarily

associate Hobart, the Hobart surf is with fast bowling. We've talked about the Wanderers for example. Earth, Brisbane, but not Hobart. Yeah, no, but it did have decent carry. It was a bit green. But yeah, you know, for me growing up watching Brett Lee and other Aussie greats to have respect from their from their ball as a fellow fastball was actually quite special.

I know as an Englishman we always want our respect from our people, but to have it from the Aussies was pretty nice. We're at Headingley today, and that's the last spell that we're going to talk about, Headingley, 2023. One thing you've said in the past as well, you best went fresh. I mean, you just burst into that ashes series and dragged Dingdon back into it. Well, I was absolutely ready to go. I remember the day before, bowling at the side of the pitch here,

heading he had head anyway, right over the far side, and bowling to a mitt, and the guy, the strength coach with the mid, had to swap with somebody because I was hurting his hand that much, bowling to him. So that was pretty cool. and I just knew I was ready I knew I was ready to go I didn't feel the weight of 2-0 down

just felt free and that's credit of Brendan McCullum and Stokesy who just wanted me to bowl quickly and make an impact and that's probably the one I'm maybe most remembered for now or the most iconic is the spell here against Australia you always want to stand up

and against these guys this is the big series this is the most iconic one is the ashes and I can still hear the commentary and can still feel the ball and a special moment for me that because my parents were here as well for the first time. I'd get in five-files and they always watch on telly or they always come to some games, but the first time the team you get five wickets at home and they were here.

So that was a lovely moment for me. Yeah, five for 34 and you bowled three of them as well. Which type of wicket do you prefer most? Is it nice to see the pole running knocked out? Stumps out the ground. Oh, nice nick so all the lads feel involved. I mean, I spent a lot of my career having to be that bouncer, bouncer, on role and I thought at times I was actually better than that that I would do everything that

the team needed that the captain wanted at the time but you know sometimes just bowling ball and I mean that hurt my figures my stats if you look at there's been games where I could literally only bowl bounce or sometimes on green pitches where I'd hope that I could show my skill off a little bit more than that and that day it hadn't I got to pitch the ball up swinging and it was the swing really that did it not just the high pace it was swing because good players play pierce well if you can move the ball I think that's what really does it for people yeah there was that one dismissal, coagre with his stump splattered. Yeah, and that, the BBC had that on socials for ages,

and I must have watched that. I mean, if you look at the insights, it would have my name about 500 times, I reckon, for watching that clip. Highest rating clip ever on the BBC Sport website. Is that right? Apparently, yeah, yeah. I just love, you know, the noise at me,

a go, through the star. Wish I could bottle that noise up again. That was one of the best feelings I've had to, And the Aussies did a documentary on it, didn't there, where the Kauaja talks about that as well. So it was nice to see that where he said, that was fast. I was like, yes.

What's it like to Belfast? Can you sum it up? It's like a surge of energy that you just have to release. It's like a ballistic movement, like a catapult or a medieval catapult. I used to describe, I said it before.

It's Denise Lewis. BBC, Denise Lewis, school the power bar button tap that button as fast you can you get the power bar off and then release it so she does the long jump to win the race that's it well great congratulations on your career you've given us lots of great moments lots of thrilling moments as well i think that's the thing isn't it there are very few sites in cricket like watching a fast bowler bowl and be successful as well and hit a couple of sixes don't forget them saying now we enjoyed those as well thanks very much thanks pal the tms podcast

from BBC Radio 5 Live. I'm Steve Bracknell, assistant manager of Sunday League powerhouses, the Royal Oak FC, and I'm back in changing room at Royal Oak for a new season of Games Gone, the podcast that takes you back to the grassroots of the game.

With my colleague Paul Samson and Bob the Bucket, and this season, we're aiming for promotion to Division D of the Sheffield Sunday Imperial League. Games Gone, the Steve Bracknell podcast. Listen on BBC Sounds. With a subscription to the BBC website and app, you can now get early access to your favorite BBC podcasts. Listen to shows like, you're dead to me, in our time,

good bad billionaire, and more. Plus, there's all the other great benefits you get with a BBC subscription, from live streaming the BBC News Channel and acclaimed documentaries to in-depth analysis and features. Visit BBC.com forward slash subscribe to find out more.