Mark Wood

Mark Andrew Wood is a professional cricketer who plays for England. He was born on January 11, 1990, in Ashington, Northumberland. He is a right-arm fast bowler, capable of hitting the deck hard, and a right-handed batter.

Wood has been an impressive bowler, beating the opponents with his raw pace across formats. He has had a fair share of ups and downs in his career owing to injuries, but he is a fiery pacer when he is fully fit and firing.

Mark Wood - Along the Years

Mark Wood Records

• Best bowling figures for England in Champions Trophy history (4/33)

• First Lucknow Super Giants bowler to take a five-wicket haul in IPL 

• Best figures in a match for Lucknow Super Giants (5/14)

• Second Englishman to pick up an IPL fifer

• Most sixes by a No. 10 batter in Cricket World Cup history (5)

• Second-highest score by a No.10 batter in CWC history (43)

Mark Wood Career

Mark Wood has been a fiery pacer who has clocked above 150 km/h quite frequently. His ability to hit the deck has reaped him rewards in all formats.

Mark Wood Domestic Career

Mark Wood joined Northumberland County in 2008 and made his debut against Norfolk. After playing for two years with them, he was signed by Durham in 2011. He took 19 wickets at an average of 21.63 in his first season. His skiddy pace helped him register 27 wickets in the 2013 winning season.

Mark Wood IPL Career

Mark Wood was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for INR 1.5 crores in the 2018 IPL mega auction. He played the inaugural match of the IPL 2018 season against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in CSK’s comeback season but leaked 49 runs in his 4 overs without taking a wicket. That was the sole match that he played in yellow in that season as he returned to England to prepare for the English summer of cricket.

After missing out on the IPL for four straight years, Wood was bought by the Lucknow Super Giants for a wealthy INR 7.5 cores in the IPL 2022 mega auction. Unfortunately, he had to miss out on the whole season due to injury and was replaced by Andrew Tye.

Wood returned to action in IPL 2023 after five long years and proved his hefty paycheck as he bagged 11 wickets in just the 4 matches he played for LSG. He impressed in his return to IPL and his maiden outing for the new franchise as he became the first LSG bowler to pick a fifer and also the second Englishman after former English all-rounder Dmitri Mascarenhas to take a five-wicket haul in the IPL when he took 5 wickets for just 14 runs in a league match against Delhi Capitals. He registered the best figures for LSG in the process as well (4-0-14-5). 

However, LSG missed the services of Wood in the latter half of the tournament as he was suffering from illness for a couple of games and returned to England for the birth of his daughter. Wood was also ruled out from IPL 2024 and was eventually replaced by Shamar Joseph.

Mark Wood International Career

A skinny fast bowler who could bowl around the 90 kmph mark, Mark Wood was selected in the England squad for the West Indies tour in 2015 but he could not play a match. He made his international debut against Ireland in an ODI in 2015.

Mark Wood ODI Career

Mark Wood made his ODI debut in the rain-affected match against Ireland on May 8, 2015, in Dublin. The match was called off after 18 overs of the Irish innings where Wood dismissed William Porterfield as his first international dismissal.

Wood then went on to feature in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 where he picked 5 wickets, including a four-wicket haul against Australia, which eventually was his career-best figures (10-0-33-4) and England’s best bowling figures in the Champions Trophy. 

Wood’s ODI career peaked when he won the ICC Cricket World Cup at home in 2019 after arguably winning the greatest final of all time. He bowled with discipline as he finished with figures of 10-1-49-1, picking the wicket of Ross Taylor. He was instrumental in England winning their maiden CWC title as he finished the tournament as the hosts’ second-highest wicket-taker, after Jofra Archer, picking up 18 wickets at an economy of 5.13 in 10 matches. 

Wood played in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 but was not at his best as he could pick up only 6 wickets in the 7 matches he played. He bowled the fastest ball of the tournament, clocking at 155 km/h in the inaugural match against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Mark Wood Test Career

Mark Wood made his Test debut against New Zealand at Lord’s. He registered figures of 3/93 and 1/47 in the match, which England ended up winning by 124 runs. He continued to impress with 5 wickets in the next match and scored a vital 19 runs with the bat.

His good performance earned him a spot in the 2015 Ashes series in England. He dismissed 4 Australian batters in the first test to help England go up 1-0 in the series. He was ruled out of the third Ashes Test after taking a single wicket in the second Ashes Test.

Wood scored his maiden Test fifty against New Zealand at Christchurch in 2018 and was happily bothered for getting a Test fifty before picking up a five-wicket haul in Tests. However, after a year, Wood picked up his maiden five-wicket haul against the West Indies at St. Lucia in 2019.

He registered his career-best figures of 6/37 in the third innings of the last Test of The Ashes against Australia in January 2022, but it went in vain as Australia bundled out the visitors for 124 and won the series 4-0, whitewashing the visitors.

Mark Wood T20I Career

Mark Wood made his T20I debut against New Zealand in Manchester in 2015 and he impressed with figures of 3-0-26-3 in his maiden outing. His personal best of 3 for 9 came against West Indies in 2019.

Wood played in the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2022, and his T20I career peaked when he was part of the squad that won the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022 when England defeated Pakistan. However, Wood could not feature in the knockouts due to injury. 

Wood has been named in the provisional 15-member squad for the ICC World T20 2024.

Mark Wood’s Family

Mark Wood has been married to his long-time girlfriend Sarah Lonsdale and has two kids.

Mark Wood’s Cars

Mark Wood owns a Range Rover in his garage.