On a couple of Ashes tours in the 1990s, Darren Gough bowled fast, straight and won Australian hearts with his skill, speed and attitude amid some otherwise desolate England performances. A couple of decades on, Mark Wood has done the same.
At the time, Australia’s then captain Mark Taylor was asked which of his XI he would trade for England’s and replied that while he wouldn’t choose any, he would pick Gough as 12th man. Wood’s admirable efforts across the series merit similar recognition.
Mark Wood takes Marnus Labuschagne’s wicket on day one in Sydney. Credit: Getty
Like Gough, Wood’s contributions have gone beyond mere statistics. He has endeared himself to the Australian public with northern English charm, no fuss sensibility and unflagging effort – summed up by the bleeding knee he shrugged off on the fourth day at the SCG, and the wholehearted batting endeavour he put in on the third evening with Jonny Bairstow.
Though Wood is not quite the born showman that Gough was, his eccentricities and obvious enjoyment of playing for England make him the sort of cricketer fans travel to see. During his time in the SCG outfield on Saturday, he often stopped for social-distanced selfies with the crowd.
In addition, Wood has been seriously fast and seriously persistent in maintaining that speed. While reducing things to the speed gun alone is never wise, Wood’s performances can be summed up by velocity – no visiting fast man to Australia in the past 20 years has kept up such furious pace.
Thirdly, and perhaps most tellingly, Wood has done what no other fast bowler in the past three years has successfully achieved in Australia – he has not only troubled Marnus Labuschagne, but progressively gained the tactical upper hand.
Mark Wood gets Marnus Labuschagne again in this Ashes series.Credit: Fox Cricket
Famously, Labuschagne loves the tactical cut and thrust of Test series, where the opportunity to face the same bowlers day after day makes for a level of one-on-one combat not readily glimpsed at any other level.
He is always tinkering with his game and seeking an edge over opposition bowlers, problem-solving after the fashion of his kindred batting spirit Steve Smith. Last summer, when R Ashwin started out with some superb spells to get the better of both Labuschagne and Smith, Australia’s Nos.3 and 4 clawed their way back with time in the middle.
A season on, however, and Wood’s focus on the territory around fourth and fifth stump lines with a climbing trajectory has improved with each match. Where Labuschagne was able to deflect and defeat his opponent at the Gabba, things have got much harder in Melbourne and Sydney.
Where most bowlers on either side have had most success with a length that is full enough to threaten the stumps, Wood’s sheer speed has allowed him to concentrate on something akin to the type of lifter once favoured by Curtly Ambrose and a host of other great West Indian fast bowlers in Australia.
His deliveries to catch the outside edge in Melbourne and then each innings at the SCG, adding up to three dismissals in the space of just 24 balls, have all been of the sort that Labuschagne is usually adept at letting go. Speed has been the difference.
Between innings in Sydney, Labuschagne was clearly aware he had a problem around the off stump, and tweaked his pre-delivery movements to go further across the crease in the manner used so successfully by Smith.
That meant when he got a wider delivery from Wood on day four, he was still more or less on the move when trying to force it square on the off side, resulting in a thin edge through to Ollie Pope, the substitute wicketkeeper.
One thing in no doubt is the fact that Wood is the only England bowler able to pose the sorts of questions commonly asked of Labuschagne in the nets by Australia’s vaunted pace attack. They will now be the sorts of queries all other countries will be dialling into their plans.
On his tours to Australia in 1994-95 and 1998-99, Gough had given stern examinations to the techniques of a couple of young Australian players – first Michael Bevan then Ricky Ponting – and neither had been able to stand up to them.
While Labuschagne is in no danger of being dropped as Bevan and Ponting were, he has been given serious food for thought for virtually the first time in a Test career in which he vaulted to No.1 in the world rankings before the MCG, where Wood got to work.
Equally, Wood’s moments of ascendancy keep open the question of what may have transpired this series had a fit Jofra Archer also been on hand. Either way, Wood’s figures of eight wickets at 37.62 for the series so far do him scant justice.