Mark Wood - fast, furious and fabulous
Ahead of the second Test at Lord’s, England had a decision to make vis-à-vis Mark Wood. He had not featured in the series opener but with the hosts’ bowling attack looking toothless at times, there might have been a temptation to throw him into the deep end, just because of how different he is.
England resisted that urge, with Ben Stokes instead saying that he wanted Mark Wood to be fully fit and firing when the third Test came along.
It almost sounded like a general who knew that his troop would be under greater siege in a week and when that would happen, he would need his greatest weapon to come out all guns blazing.
And so…this is Headingley.
The Ashes is on the line. Questions about Bazball continue. England find a bit of grass on the surface and elect to bowl. They nip out David Warner in the first over but find wickets tough to get thereafter. Six overs in, they feel the time is right to unleash Wood.
This is, lest you forget, a bowler who has not played any competitive cricket since April, and a pacer whose last Test appearance dates to December 2022.
Yet, here he is, carrying the expectations of a country, longing to make a mark on what has already been an eventful Ashes iteration.
Mark Wood was sensational at Headingley
The first ball he bowls is hurled in at over 90 miles per hour. The next is quicker, at 93 miles per hour. Wood then cranks it up to 95 miles per hour, with the fourth ball flying off Marnus Labuschagne’s thigh pad and racing away for a four.
0.1 - 91mph
Mark Wood is BACK!
🔥 0.1 - 91mph
🔥 0.2 - 93mph
🔥 0.3 - 95mph
🔥 0.4 - 93mph
🔥 0.5 - 94mph
🔥 0.6 - 93mph
The fastest over ever at Headingley since records began! 🌪️
#EnglandCricket | #Ashes https://t.co/KYsg6gGnFr
The speeds keep on increasing in the next over, and there comes a time when everyone at Headingley is sitting with bated breath. England are under the pump in this Ashes series but right now, thousands at the ground are just enjoying watching Wood light up Leeds.
There are murmurs whenever the big screen shows the pace at which he is bowling. An even bigger gasp when he beats Labuschagne twice in the ninth over. But it is nothing compared to what happens in the 13th over.
Usman Khawaja, who has looked one of the most assured batters this series, gets his feet stuck into the turf like cement. The ball is there to be driven but his feet go nowhere. To Wood’s credit, he gets it to curve back in devilishly and does so very late.
Khawaja, knowing that he has to do something to divert a heat-seeking 90-plus miles per hour missile, throws his hands at it. He gets a thick inside edge and the ball cannons into leg stump, leaving it flattened.
Headingley erupts. Wood leaps into joy too. And Australia, after facing short-ball barrages from bowlers not exactly termed as express bowlers, now know they are in a fight – a fight that is suddenly as much survival as scoring runs.
After lunch on Day 1, there is a brief spell where Mitchell Marsh gets stuck into the England pacer. Whatever he bowls, travels the distance. His pace also does not hit the crazy heights it did in the first session.
As the day progresses, though, it becomes amply clear that that was just an aberration. Perhaps because Marsh was batting on a level higher than anyone else. Perhaps because the pitch had just flattened out. Or perhaps because Wood was playing his first Test in seven months and just fluctuations were to be expected.
After tea, the pacer is back in his element. Because of how quick he is bowling, Mitchell Starc, like Khawaja, does not move his feet and gets castled. Pat Cummins gets caught on the crease too and is pinned lbw.
Alex Carey, who has often scored crucial runs lower down the order for Australia, gets struck on the helmet because Wood is just too fast. A ball later, he tries to back away and clear extra cover, only finding the fielder in the process. Todd Murphy is the last to depart after he drags on a full delivery onto his stumps.
A common thread in each of these dismissals was how rattled the Australian batters looked, and how hurried their decision-making seemed. Yes, this surface was a lot livelier than what has been dished out so far but much of that is also down to Wood thundering in. Ball after ball, and without offering the batters any respite.
In fact, the only thing quicker than the thunderbolts he was delivering was Wood hurtling in to bowl each delivery. Not the wind. Not the airplanes whirring over the Leeds airspace. He charged in. Kept falling over on his follow-through. Yet, tore the Ashes series open. With heart. And, of course, searing pace.
And that, considering he had not played any competitive cricket since the IPL in April, and the fact that he had not featured for England since their tour to Pakistan late last year, is indicative of just how badly he wanted to do something for his country and how he is perhaps one of the most whole-hearted cricketers on the planet.
Bowling fast is not easy. It takes a toll on the body and there is a reason why tearaway quicks suffer numerous injuries. Wood has been privy to those things over the years. But the way he turned up on the first day at Headingley, it made you wonder if he has made solace with that fact.
The next over he bowls could be his last. The next ball he bowls could be his final delivery. And when that is such a real possibility, because of his injury record and the burden he places on his body, why not just forget about everything and bowl as quick as possible?!
Wood made Headingley hold their collective breath, gasp and marvel – all at the same time. Only unadulterated, unfiltered and raw pace can do that. After all, pace is pace, yaar.
It makes your heart, as a spectator, stop. It makes your mind, as a batter, do funky things. It also makes a captain, as accomplished as Ben Stokes and a nation, as pedigreed as England, dream wildly about what exactly is possible.
All in a day’s work.