Ten years on from arguably the greatest Test of all, Mark Wood will head to Edgbaston this week hoping to emulate Ashington’s most famous cricketing son by helping England to another memorable victory against Australia. Like everyone who witnessed it the 25-year-old Wood remembers exactly where he was the moment Steve Harmison took the decisive wicket of Michael Kasprowicz to seal a nerve-shredding two-run win in the defining match of that fabled 2005 Ashes series.
Watching television in a corner of his local cricket club in Northumberland, a schoolboy Wood was inspired to forge a career in the sport as he drank in the atmosphere, the patrons celebrating the success of one of their own as if it was their own as the ball thudded into the gloves of the wicketkeeper Geraint Jones.
On Wednesday, when the third match of this current Ashes instalment begins in Birmingham, England’s latest fast-bowling recruit from the north-east will dare to dream he, too, can have the locals at Ashington Cricket Club kicking over their chairs in delight.
“Harmy was a big hero for everyone at the club and a friend of mine,” said Wood. “I remember Jones taking that catch – we were in the lounge, a smaller room compared to the clubhouse – and everyone was going mad, chairs getting kicked over: it was fantastic.
“It was the greatest series that certainly I have ever watched and to have somebody from your home town in it was fantastic. I hope it doesn’t get that close in this game but I would love to put a performance in like that. I would love to be thought of like that by lads growing up at 14 and 15 like I was then. The games in this one haven’t been close but it is 1-1. I am not sure I want close games but to come out with a win will be fantastic.”
England will take any win at Edgbaston given the depths they sunk to at Lord’s, a 405-run defeat in the second Test puncturing the optimism that followed a remarkable 169-run victory of their own in the series opener in Cardiff. As Wood notes, the series is level and he hopes memories of 2005 can inspire this current group of England players in the coming week.
“It is exciting for us to try and emulate that,” said the Durham bowler. “That was a fantastic Australian side. This side has broken records and won World Cups and it is great to put yourself up against the best sides in the world.”
Firstly, though, Wood has to ensure he is in the team for the third Test. Having played only 28 first-class games and with a history of injury problems, there is a feeling England – just as they did for the first two games of the recent one-day series against New Zealand – will look to rest Wood either for Edgbaston or the fourth Test at Trent Bridge that follows soon after.
Wood’s pace was down at Lord’s as, four Tests into his burgeoning international career, his body struggled to cope with the demands of back-to-back matches. But a week’s rest has done him good and he is adamant he does not want to be rested under any circumstances.
“I definitely don’t want to miss games for England,” he says. “I have had a good rest now, then we go to Edgbaston then we go to Trent Bridge, where I have a good record. We have got some good fast bowlers and, say the next fast bowler to come in took five wickets, then I am out of the team.
“It’s not been discussed particularly. They have asked me how my body is and how I feel, not: ‘You are going to be rested.’ It was noticed my pace is down at times when it is a flat pitch and you don’t want to concede runs, so you bowl within yourself. It was consciously bowling within myself at Lord’s but I was down on pace. There is only one way I am going to get better and that is by playing back-to-back Tests.”
While the physical demands of an Ashes series can be gruelling, Wood is also finding the extra scrutiny mentally draining. “The difference is the hype that surrounds the Ashes,” says Wood. “I wake up every so often and go to the toilet and go back to sleep and then wake up thinking: ‘I hope I bowl better than I did yesterday,’ and go back to sleep again and wake up thinking: ‘I hope I score a few runs.’ My mind is in overdrive and it gets to you. It keeps happening but it is just excitement.”
If Wood can keep the nerves at bay on Tuesday night, he is likely to be dreaming of writing a new chapter in Ashington’s proud Ashes history.
Investec are title sponsor of the Ashes.
