England’s Ashes started with an almighty thud – a two-day defeat at Perth’s Optus Stadium – and Mark Wood knows the blow will sting for a while. The fast bowler, fresh from nine months out with knee surgery, says the dressing-room mood is “raw” but insists the series is still wide open.
“We know this is one of five,” Wood told Stuart Broad on the For The Love Of Cricket podcast. “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.”
Facts first. England led by 105 runs with nine wickets intact late on day one, only to be bundled out for 164 and then see Travis Head counter-punch 123 from 97 balls. Australia motored to their target and wrapped things up before lunch on day two – the shortest Ashes Test since 1936. England’s attack, so accurate in the first innings, lost its shape in the second; their batting collapsed twice. That double failure, more than any Australian flourish, framed the inquest that followed.
Players kept a low profile around Perth on Sunday, many preferring hotel rooms to a city buzzing with Australian delight. Wood, 35, admitted he even wondered about a coast-to-coast road trip to clear his head before the second Test at Brisbane’s Gabba, which does not start for ten days.
“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,” he said, half-smiling. In the end he will settle for Wednesday’s three-and-a-half-hour flight with the bulk of the squad. Three fringe players – Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts – break away for a Lions outing against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra.
“When you have a loss like that, you want to stick together,” Wood added. “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.”
Wood’s own return offered England one bright spot. He bowled only 11 overs but reached 92 mph, thumped Cameron Green on the helmet and emerged wicket-less mainly through luck rather than poor bowling. Given that light workload and the day-night conditions in Brisbane – the pink ball tends to zip around in twilight – he is almost certain to play again.
How England re-shape the rest of their XI is less clear. The top order still looks one dismissal away from panic, while Moeen Ali’s off-spin asked few questions. Head coach Brendon McCullum rarely wavers from his attacking principles, yet even he acknowledged after Perth that “calm heads” are required. A replacement batter for Ollie Pope, who managed 11 runs in the match at No. 3, is being discussed, with Dan Lawrence again talked up.
Former opener Marcus Trescothick, now part of the back-room staff, tried to zoom out. “It’s one game. Painful yes, but series-ending? Absolutely not,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “Australia had the perfect storm – helpful surface, fresh bowlers, a free-scoring middle order. We didn’t match it second time round. The challenge is to learn, not sulk.”
England have engineered comebacks before. In 2010-11 they were flattened at the Gabba yet won the series 3-1. In 2019 they conceded a 90-run first-innings lead at Headingley and still won an infamous one-wicket epic. Those memories are fuel for a side that may need reminding.
Analytically, England’s biggest task is a familiar one: partnerships. They managed just one stand over 50 across two innings and none after the ball softened on day one. Australia, by contrast, stitched three sizeable partnerships in their chase, each hand-brake-turning momentum. The pitch in Brisbane should be quicker but less up-and-down; England know it well from recent tours. Whether familiarity breeds confidence or fresh scars depends on their next week.
For now, Wood prefers boxing metaphors to spreadsheets. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” he said, referencing Mike Tyson. England absorbed a haymaker in Perth. Over the next four Tests they must find a few of their own.
