Mark Wood has urged England to lift themselves off the canvas and hit back at Australia in the remaining four Tests of the Ashes series. Travis Head’s blistering century sealed a defeat for England at Perth Stadium in merely two days, but it was the visitors’ batting collapse that let Australia off the hook despite holding a 105-run lead with nine second-innings wickets in hand.
Head’s commanding 123 felt like a punch in the face. England’s bowlers, so aggressive and disciplined in the first innings,
were comprehensively dismantled in the second. As they regrouped ahead of the next Test, England’s players kept a low profile on Sunday.
Many preferred to remain in their hotel rooms, both to process the humbling defeat and to avoid the streets filled with jubilant Australian fans and frustrated English supporters. While further introspection lies ahead, Wood, whose 38th Test was his first competitive match in nearly nine months following knee surgery in March, has called on the team to return with renewed fight.
"We know this is one of five. There has to be reflection of what went on, understand the disappointment but also know we did some good things in this game. Can we take them into the other four games? This is not one, it's one of five. We've been hit pretty hard in round one, but we've got other rounds to try and throw some back,” Wood told Stuart Broad on the For The Love Of Cricket podcast.
With the second Test at the Gabba still 10 days away, Wood admitted he briefly considered driving from Perth to Brisbane. He even looked into hiring a camper van before being talked out of the idea.
“I did speak to a local who said if you go across the country, that's a big danger. So you'd have to drive around the coast. But I did look at it,” said Wood.
The 35-year-old will instead take a far less glamorous flight with the majority of the Ashes squad on Wednesday. Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue, and Matthew Potts are the only players set to join the England Lions for the Prime Minister’s XI match, departing for Canberra on Tuesday. The priority within the camp has been to keep the group together until the shellshock of the defeat begins to fade.
"When you have a loss like that, you want to stick together. I think that's really important. Emotions will be raw for everyone at home, when you get close and start believing in the team and have that letdown feeling. There's nothing I can say on a podcast that will make people think, 'oh they've solved it, I feel better now'. It's going to hurt and it should hurt for a few days, the players feel that as well. It is difficult but what can you do? We're stuck here, it's not as though we can get up and leave for Brisbane. If I could drive across the country I probably would just to keep my mind going but we're stuck here,” said Wood.
Wood bowled only 11 overs in the match, all at high pace, troubling batters and even striking Cameron Green on the grille. He finished wicketless for 44, suggesting he should be fit to go again for the day-night Test. He featured in one of the two pink-ball games on the previous Ashes tour, starring in the final Test at Hobart where he claimed 6 for 37 in the second innings and nine wickets for the match.
In fact, the entire bowling attack could be retained. Despite being dismantled by Head in the second innings, England’s quicks had plenty to take heart from in the first, when they skittled Australia for 132 to secure what at that point seemed like a match-shaping 40-run lead. The performance reinforced the belief that an all-pace attack can succeed on Australian surfaces, regardless of the colour of the ball.
"I definitely feel we've got 20 wickets, certainly. The team has been designed to take 20 wickets in these conditions. [Brydon] Carse bowled beautifully this game, ran in all the time. He made things happen, he was constantly at people. Gus [Atkinson] didn't get any wickets but he nibbled it around and beat the bat a lot. Jofra [Archer], I thought we saw the best of him, especially that opening spell,” said Wood.
"As a group we can take a lot of confidence from that game. Being a day-night Test, we know around night time it can zip around. If it can zip around at pace that can make it doubly difficult. Australia will have confidence from that win. I know it's only one guy who's played particularly well but as a group that will give them a lift, winning that type of game. Their batters will be more confident - can one of them play an innings like that? It's up to us to fight fire with fire, come back in and try to knock them over again,” he concluded.
