"There’s a dog in the dressing room" - Ollie Robinson recalls Mark Wood's hilarious antics before Ashes Test
Mark Wood is not just an incredibly quick bowler but also has been described as a great character by his England teammates. His press conferences have often been humorous and compatriot Ollie Robinson has now claimed that he keeps the dressing room atmosphere lively as well.
There's naturally a lot of pressure in big series like the ongoing Ashes 2023 and players can sometimes feel nervous ahead of the start of such massive games. However, Robinson feels Wood was able to break the nervous bubbles with his hilarious actions.
In his column for Wisden, Robinson explained how Wood roamed around the dressing room like a dog ahead of an Ashes Test. He wrote:
"Woody’s just got this mad, unique energy. There’s no one else like him. You think he’s drunk half the time, yet he doesn’t touch a drop. Bear in mind, this is a bloke who, 10 minutes before we went out, literally at 10:50am, was on all-fours barking on the changing room floor, going, ‘There’s a dog in the dressing room. There’s a dog in here, lads…’"
Ollie Robinson on Mark Wood's Headingley spell
Ollie Robinson was also mesmerized to see Mark Wood's searing pace in the third Ashes Test in Headingley. He explained in the aforementioned column about how he felt as a fielder during his compatriot's explosive spells.
"I’ve never seen a spell like Woody’s on that first morning. After the first over I went to fine leg, and I was standing no more than 15 yards behind Jonny [Bairstow, England’s wicketkeeper], thinking, literally, ‘This is the fastest thing I’ve ever seen,’" Ollie Robinson explained.
"It was crazy. I felt like if they hit it more than a metre either side of me it was a certain boundary, and the fact he was consistently getting the shape and movement on it as well – at that speed – was just unbelievable bowling."
Mark Wood put in an incredible all-round performance in the third Ashes 2023 Test in Headingley, even winning the Player of the Match award. The pacer recorded figures of 5/34 and 2/66 with the ball, while also scoring 40 runs off just 16 balls across both innings, to help England record a three-wicket win.
The victory brought the hosts back into the series after they lost the first two Tests.