"We might just have kicked our poles over" - Ollie Robinson recalls Mark Wood's red-hot spell at Headingley
England seamer Ollie Robinson revealed that Mark Wood's fiery spell in the third Ashes Test at Headingley took him by surprise. Robinson jokingly suggested that English bowlers would've rather knocked their stumps over than face Wood.
Wood, who replaced Josh Tongue, rattled Australia at Headingley by clocking speeds of over 92 from the get-go. The 33-year-old took a fifer in the first innings and added two more to his tally in the second to earn the Player of the Match award.
In his column for wisden.com, Robinson stated how Usman Khawaja, who plays pace bowling well, struggled against Wood.
"Uzzie [Usman Khawaja], who obviously plays pace really well and has been in such good form, even he struggled with the pace at times. He went from having this quiet persona at the crease to suddenly smiling and joking, trying to give off the feelgood vibes that he was fine. Us bowlers were saying that if we’d been batting out there, we might just have kicked our poles over."
The Sussex seamer observed that Marnus Labuschagne also had the same feeling while facing Wood.
"There was one ball that Marnus played, and after it he had a sort of wry, awkward smile on his face. And he was trying to give off the persona that everything’s fine, when it’s really not, because someone’s bowling 95 miles per hour! You knew it was too quick for him after that."
The Durham speedster also played useful cameos in the match across two innings, hitting boundaries at will for quick runs. Wood also stayed till the end alongside Chris Woakes, who hit the winning runs.
"I’ve never seen a spell like Woody’s on that first morning" - Ollie Robinson
Robinson felt Wood's spell was the quickest he had ever seen and elaborated:
"I’ve never seen a spell like Woody’s on that first morning. I was at mid-off to start with, and first few balls, I thought, 'Jeez, that looks pretty quick'. After the first over I went to fine leg, and I was standing no more than 15 yards behind Johnny, thinking, literally, ‘This is the fastest thing I’ve ever seen’. It was crazy."
England have the right-arm speedster in their 14-man squad for the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester.