“I always felt like his bat was big” - Mark Wood names 3 Indians among most difficult batters after ENG vs IND 2025 Tests

England ace pacer Mark Wood has picked India’s reigning ODI skipper Rohit Sharma as the most difficult batter to bowl after the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Wood believes that Rohit enjoys playing short ball, which is also his weakness. He stressed that the Mumbai batter, on his day, has an upper hand against him.

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Wood added that Virat Kohli equally challenged him unless he bowled him outside the fourth or fifth stump line, which troubled the former India skipper during his last Test series in Australia.

On Wednesday (August 27), the 35-year-old told ‘The Overlap Cricket’ YouTube channel:

“58:16 – Yeah, in different stages of my career, I would say Rohit Sharma. Difficult because against the short ball, you feel like you, for myself, I’ve got a chance of getting him out, but also if he’s on that day, he smokes it. So, he was difficult. I always felt like his bat was big, just kept getting wider.”

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“58:42 – Kohli, obviously. Unbelievable competitor, someone that I felt you have this weakness of fourth, fifth stump drag him in. We seem to never miss him when I bowl him there. So, that was difficult,” he added.

Mark Wood vs the star Indian duo

Wood vs Rohit Sharma: 229 runs and five dismissals (across formats)

Wood vs Virat Kohli: 99 runs and one dismissal (across formats)

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“He’s such a good eye” – Mark Wood on the challenges of bowling against star India wicketkeeper

Mark Wood further shared that it was tough for him to tackle India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant because of his unconventional shots. The lanky pacer said that the bowlers need to bowl a mixture of deliveries, including slower ones, bouncers, and yorkers, to stay on top of him.

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Wood said in the same video:

“59:42 – I think you’ve got to hold your nerve. That’s basically what I would say. It’s because I think you kind of be so unpredictable that then that plays into his hands that he can just stand there and he waits for anything difficult. But if you have the, if you’re the same all the time, then he can, he’s got such a good eye, he sort of hits it where he wants.”

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“So, I think you’ve got to have a mixture of hold your nerve to maybe the old ball that’s a bit unpredictable, whether it’s a slower ball or you might change up with a really high bouncer or a fast yorker like something slightly different,” he added.

Interestingly, Wood has played just one Test, one ODI, and two T20Is against Pant.

Mark Wood vs Rishabh Pant: 35 runs and one dismissal (across formats).

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About the author James Kuanal James has been covering cricket news for Sportskeeda for 3+ years with over 1 crore readership. He has been following the game since 2002 and has not looked back since. A breaking news specialist, he has a previous 3-year work experience at Times of India, English Jagran, NDTV and others, covering all news categories, including sports.

James holds a Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and a diploma in Sub-editing and Design which shaped his sports reporting career. During the course of his education, he learned about the 5W1H format, fact-checking, ethics, SEO, pyramid structure, etc, which enable him to produce compelling content for his readers. His exploits in reporting have led him to exclusively cover numerous ICC events and IPL.

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