England will employ a sledgehammer and scalpel tactic as they look to seal their first whitewash of West Indies for 20 years at Edgbaston

England will employ a sledgehammer and a scalpel as they look to wrap up their first whitewash of West Indies in a full Test series for 20 years.

The sledgehammer comes in the form of Mark Wood, who - according to Ben Stokes - ‘has it in the tank’ to reach 100mph after a bone-shuddering performance at Trent Bridge that left all-rounder Kevin Sinclair with a broken arm, ruling him out of Friday's third Test at Edgbaston.

And the scalpel denotes England’s more forensic approach with the bat as Bazball enters its next phase.

Head coach Brendon McCullum said after the 4-1 defeat in India in March that his team needed to ‘refine’ their style, and the second innings in Nottingham was the first out of 19 in which they have not hit a six. Stokes, meanwhile, sounded keen to emphasise his team’s greater ‘smartness’ in the early stages of the long road to the 2025-26 Ashes.

It is a combination that, once more, ought to be too much for a game but limited West Indies, who are still reeling after they lost all 10 second-innings wickets at Trent Bridge in 23 overs - turning the possibility of a historic five-day win into a four-day humiliation.

With England naming an unchanged side for a match in which tickets for the first three days sold out before Christmas, a crowd of 25,000 will roar Wood on as he seeks to break his own national record of 97.73mph, set at Melbourne in the otherwise bleak Covid winter of 2021-22.

How about the fabled 100mph? ‘He’s got it in the tank,’ said Stokes. ‘He seems to be getting closer and closer. Being able to sustain that pace is quite phenomenal. It’s all fine and well trying to bowl one spell above 90, but every spell for England he’s clocking over 90, and that’s a great thing to have as a captain.

‘He’s got the heart of a lion. He runs in spell after spell, ball after ball. Although he didn’t get the rewards he wanted last week, he knows he affects the game in more than just wickets. I think someone will pay this summer, either West Indies this game or Sri Lanka.’

Should Wood reach 100mph, he will be entering uncharted territory for a Test match. He did once register 100.42 at Lord’s in 2015, though a faulty speedgun was immediately blamed. Instead, the fastest delivery legitimately recorded in the format is 99.6mph, by Australia’s Mitchell Starc against New Zealand’s Ross Taylor at Perth in 2015-16. Three bowlers - Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar and the Australian duo of Brett Lee and Shaun Tait - have reached three figures in one-day internationals.

For England’s batsmen, by contrast, it seems there is increasingly less need for speed. If Bazball’s first phase included passages of play too frenetic for some critics, then that was part of what Stokes regarded as a necessary corrective to the stodge that preceded it. Led by the captain himself, England often pushed themselves to the limits, if only to find out what was possible.

Now, it is as if the point has been made. They are still scoring quickly: their run-rate for the series is 4.47. But Stokes believes the partnership of 189 in 41 overs between Joe Root and Harry Brook in the second innings at Trent Bridge provided a template for proactive, commonsense batting.

‘They adapted to how quickly the conditions changed, but they were also able to get the scoreboard ticking over, without looking like it was dot, dot, dot, smash,’ he said.

‘We still like to apply as much pressure as we can, even if the bowling conditions are in the opposition’s favour. But I think you can see there is a bit more smartness around the way we play. The run-rate is the same, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s as expansive, if that makes sense?’

‘West Indies threw everything at us. I just thought it was a brilliant partnership and a sign of the progression we made over the two years.’

Not since 2004, when Michael Vaughan led them to a 4-0 victory have England clean-swept a full Test series against West Indies, whose first-innings defiance in Nottingham was the meat in a thin sandwich that has produced all-out totals of 121, 136 and 143.

And while the series has already been decided, there are World Test Championship points up for grabs, with West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite urging his team to ‘be on it always, not just for the first three days’ after their Trent Bridge tribulations.

The absence of Sinclair allows the return of left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, who sat out the second Test through illness. With Shamar Joseph also unwell and in danger of missing out, West Indies have called up the uncapped Barbadian quick Akeem Jordan, who has been playing for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham & District Premier League.

For England, nothing but another entertaining win will do, as Test cricket seeks to hog the headlines from the Hundred, whose fourth edition began on Tuesday. Another lightning spell from Wood will illuminate the game’s grandest format very nicely.