Eng vs Ind: Mark Wood confident of Robinson and Anderson playing 5th Test

England fast bowler Mark Wood is hopeful that Ollie Robinson and James Anderson will play in the Manchester Test against India starting from this Friday.

England fast bowler Mark Wood is hopeful that Ollie Robinson and James Anderson will play in the Manchester Test against India starting from this Friday. The English pair have been mightily effective against the Indian batsmen taking a combined 36 wickets between them in four Tests.

"I think yeah both players, I think both are caught up on fitness," Mark Wood said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday. "We must win this to claw back. The two big players who bowled brilliantly this series we hope that we have training today and tomorrow, the fast bowlers who played a lot like Ollie Robinson and James Anderson will have some time to stretch and relax." Earlier in this series, Wood sustained an injury while diving to save a boundary on the fourth day of the second Test at Lord's, and was only fit to bowl four overs on the final day.

Talking about his rehab and injury, the English seamer said: "When we arrived at Oval I was able to bowl and bat, the only problem I had was in throwing. But at the end of the game, it got slowly and slowly better." With the hectic scheduling of matches due to the COVID-19 situation, Wood said: "It's very difficult when you want the performance high and don't want to get people injured. You want your bowlers to be at the optimal. This series has been excitable because the bowlers have bowled well and batsmen had to work hard for their runs."

"Having a tight schedule is definitely hard for bowlers in terms of injury, keeping that level and pace up. It is tough but it's a huge series that both England and India are desperate to win." "So we have to just try our best to deal with it. That's why we have a group of fast bowlers and India too. They have plenty of quality bowlers in reserve. England is just missing a few in Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes. We have that depth, then hopefully when people are needed to rest or rotate we will have a backup."

India and England will now lock horns in the fifth and final Test which will be live on Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 (Hindi) channels from 3:30 pm on Friday. (ANI)

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