5 best Test bowling performances of 2019

1. Mark Wood (5/41 vs West Indies, St Lucia)

Mark Wood bowled at searing pace against West Indies in St Lucia Test

England had been searching for a bowler with raw pace for a long time, and their hopes seemed to rest on Jofra Archer qualifying to play for them. But it turned out to be another bowler, short and slight in built, who first brought high speed to their bowling arsenal.

Mark Wood produced an astonishing spell of lightning-fast bowling at Gros Islet, St Lucia to pummel the West Indian batting line-up. The same batsmen who had successfully negotiated the English bowlers in the first two Tests of the series, now looked as helpless as English batsmen had done against Mitchell Johnson in the 2013/14 Ashes.

This wasn’t just the best spell of fast bowling this year, but also one of the best spells of pace bowling in the recent history of English cricket. It was clear that, in the form of Wood, England had found a genuinely quick and hostile speedster - one who, on his day, could rip the heart out of any batting line-up.