Wholehearted Mark Wood shows the spirit England sorely lack

England have benefited from paceman Mark Wood’s wholehearted endeavour

The underdogs fought tigerishly. On a good pitch in foreign climes, they showed it was possible to put the disadvantages of the schedule and conditions and status of the opposition to one side, and play bright, attractive and winning Test cricket. But enough of Bangladesh in Mount Maunganui. Here in Sydney, on a mostly gloomy, overcast and humid day, at least the rain-reduced exchanges were competitive for the most part.

Both captains wanted to bat — Pat Cummins got the choice — but it felt like a bowling day, with the high humidity evidenced by shirts that clung damply, even after an over or two, to the bodies of the England bowlers. Rain reduced the over count by a half, and much of that action took place with the floodlights on full beam, until late in the day when the sun shone for the first time and, counterintuitively, two of the three wickets fell.

England’s attack was bolstered by the return of Stuart Broad, who duly picked up the wicket of David Warner — for a 13th time — but who was otherwise nullified in half-century partnerships for the first and second wickets. James Anderson’s two spells, of six overs in the morning and seven in the evening, were the pick, and the other opener, Marcus Harris, fell to him, while Mark Wood’s electric pace did for Marnus Labuschagne for the second time in consecutive Tests.

Wood has netted only six wickets at 32 apiece in this series, but three of them have been big fish — Labuschagne twice, and Steve Smith once. His figures are, in a sense, unremarkable but as Zak Crawley said in a different context before the match, statistics can be misleading (not that misleading, Zak) and England have certainly benefited from Wood’s wholehearted endeavour. Oh that the team could tap into more of his spirit.

Wood is the kind of cricketer Richie Benaud would have endorsed, enjoying as he did players who connected with the public. There was a reminder of Benaud the day before the Test when the media centre was named in his honour. The unveiling, presided over by his wife, Daphne, saw his famous bone-white jacket encased, and a quote engraved into the wall. “An Australian way of life,” is the one used, which is how he described the game here.

Three hours before play, it was a sentiment with which it was hard to disagree, as the lines for the members’ entrance snaked into the distance in the park beside the ground.

Ashes decided and dead rubber it may be, but there is an appetite to watch the Poms being ground into the dust, and for live sport after two years of wretched restrictions. The roar that greeted the entrance of Cummins for the toss, told a tale.

Broad had been described by England’s acting head coach Graham Thorpe as a “caged tiger” in the days before the game, and he certainly looked eager for action, and was out in the middle bowling to the coaches moments before the anthems were sung. No doubt he was looking forward again to crossing swords with Warner, given their battles in England and given Broad’s frustration in having missed out on the helpful pitches in Brisbane and Melbourne.

As it happens, Broad’s opening spell was less incisive than Anderson’s and Warner had the better of the early exchanges, simply by virtue of being at the other end for the most part. When he did get some strike, his driving was especially pleasing, sending three skimming to the fence, and dominating the scoring. Harris picked off one boundary to a short ball from Broad, but otherwise was happy to watch Warner take the lead.

Rain brought two stoppages in the opening session, the first after only four overs and the second, after a dozen, bringing an early lunch. Given the stop-start nature of the morning, and the difficulties that entails for batsmen, who must get themselves in time and again against fresh bowlers, both openers did well to get to the break. While the pitch was dry, the morning felt more like Colombo than Sydney.

Strangely, Root began with Ben Stokes after lunch. A basic principle of captaincy is that you start each session with your best two bowlers for the conditions, but Root, too often, eases into a session with his third or fourth best options, which he also did after lunch on the second day in Melbourne, with Jack Leach. As a result, England often drift into a session, as they did here, rather than attack it with intent.

With a brace of no-balls, and a ballooning bouncer that went for five wides, Stokes did not threaten, although one edge from Warner evaded Crawley’s dive at second slip by a whisker. Crawley is a good slip fieldsman, as Warner was soon to discover, but in this instance a one-handed effort, instead of two, would have allowed him a little further reach to the ball and might have made the difference.

Warner’s urgency and decisiveness was mirrored in his running between the wickets and he looked as fluent as he has done all series. Maybe overconfidence as a result played its part, but looking for a half-volley where none existed, Warner offered a loose drive at Broad and that was that. With the Ashes gone, it felt like something of a hollow victory for the bowler and a reminder of what might have been had the rain gods been kinder in the run-up to the Gabba.

But, then, the counterfactuals can be raised whenever you want. How many wickets, for example, would Australia have taken had they bowled here on the first day? Who knows, but against England’s batting line-up, it is not hard to imagine a slightly different outcome. Only nine overs were possible in the middle session and when, just before drinks in the evening session, only one wicket had fallen and Harris had begun to look a completely different batsman from the tentative player who began the series, a familiar tale beckoned.

Harris, slow but secure, had taken two delicious boundaries in the evening. His first mistake, an indeterminate poke in the middle of a good spell from Anderson, who worked the left-hander over by alternating his angle of attack, was his last. Smith, looking a nervy starter in this series, was beaten on the outside edge and Usman Khawaja, given a fine welcome on the ground of his upbringing and a hostile one from Wood, got off the mark with a thunderous pull. It was the final act of a not especially significant day — unless you were a Bangladesh cricketer, of course.