Mark Wood Added To England Squad For Second Test Against West Indies

Tearaway pacer Mark Wood has been added to England's squad for the second Test against West Indies, starting at Trent Bridge on Thursday. Wood comes in after veteran pacer James Anderson retired from international cricket following England's crushing win over West Indies by an innings and 114 runs at Lord's. Wood's last Test appearance came against India at Dharamshala in March and didn't play the first Test at Lord's due to him recently featuring for England in the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup in the West Indies last month. England are having a 1-0 lead in the ongoing three-match Test series against the West Indies.

The win at Lord's was just England's fourth in this cycle of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle as they sit with 33 points and a points percentage of 25%. They are level on points percentage with South Africa and Bangladesh in the bottom half of the standings.

England gave a debut to pacer Gus Atkinson at Lord's, who claimed figures of 12-106 - the fourth-best match figures by a debutant bowler in history of Test cricket. Matthew Potts and uncapped Dillon Pennington are England's other seam-bowling options in the Test squad.

England squad for second Test: Ben Stokes (captain), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Dillon Pennington, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood