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Wood is England’s fastest player and is expected to be crucial to their hopes of winning the Ashes for the first time since 2015.
He and skipper Ben Stokes are the only members of the England bowling group to have played a Test under.
While Wood has repeatedly overcome his fragile body to come back from injuries to impressive effect throughout his career, this comeback has not been easy.
He had hoped to be fit for the fifth Test against India in early August before a setback occurred and he was left out of all of England’s white-ball matches, against South Africa in September and the tour of New Zealand that ended last week, to prioritize the Ashes.
Plans for Wood to play in Durham’s County Championship in September have also been postponed.
Instead, Wood built his fitness in the nets at Durham, in England matches during training and in the tent at the National Cricket Center in Loughborough, which England used to mimic Australian conditions.
Wood said he hopes to continue his coaching work and then play in England’s only warm-up match before the first Test – a match against the England Lions in Perth, which starts next Wednesday.
“I trained for two or three days and trained very well,” Wood said.
“Going into the training match will be another good test again, but so far so good,” he added.
Upon his return, Wood added:[It was] Really boring for six months and the path was never straight.
“There were some parts I wasn’t doing well and I had to build it back up. It’s good to finally be outside in nice weather that keeps me energized.”
The English team was welcomed in Australia with hostile headlines from the local media with the West Australian newspaper describing Stokes as a “cocky captain”.
Wood said he didn’t pay any attention to the coverage.
“This is all part of it,” Wood said.
“I didn’t care much for the newspapers, but the reception we got overall from Australians was great.
“At the hotel and outside in Perth, everyone was so friendly and enthusiastic about the series.”
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