England's terrific pacer Mark Wood has singled out India's explosive batter Rohit Sharma as one of the toughest Indian batters he has come across in international cricket, praising hitman's ability to counter short-pitched deliveries. Wood, who has been out of action since August last year following a knee injury, is aiming to make his comeback with Durham in the County Championship this September, gearing up for a crucial Ashes campaign this winter. Rohit has a strong record against Mark Wood in limited-overs cricket, scoring 113 runs from nine ODIs.

“Yeah, in different stages of my career, I would say Rohit Sharma. Difficult because against the short ball, you feel like you’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,” Wood said on Overlap Podcast.

Praising Kohli, Wood termed him an unbelievable competitor.

“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 said.

The pacer has been on the sidelines recovering from the injury. Now, with the highly anticipated Ashes series in Australia looming later this year, Wood is eyeing a strong return to competitive cricket next month with Durham. Wood also revealed that he was close to playing the final match of England's recently concluded five-match Test series against India, but due to a fitness issue, he failed to participate.

"The injury is all right. It was 50-50 whether I was going to make the India Test but I was bowling at Lord's and then, the next day, my knee swelled up again so I had it drained and since then it's just been about taking things easy looking ahead to the winter."