Wood's pace leaves Australia a new challenge

Mark Wood has changed the mood around this Ashes and Australia know they need to find a way to exhaust him to nullify his impact.

Wood claimed seven wickets at Headingley, including 5 for 34 in the first innings, and touched speeds of 96mph as Australia faced an entirely new challenge to one that confronted them in the first two Tests.

At Edgbaston and Lord's, Australia managed to put considerable overs into England's quicks but at Headingley their two innings lasted for 60.4 and 67.1 overs. Wood did extend himself into a seven-over spell at the back-end of Australia's second innings, but Ben Stokes was largely able to use him for maximum impact.

It made the double loss of Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith even more of pivotal moment, especially given England were a bowler down with Ollie Robinson having suffered back spasms.

Wood's performance continued an impressive record against Australia which has now brought him 34 wickets at 27.76, although prior to Leeds the majority of that had come from the 2021-22 Ashes tour where he claimed 17 at 26.64, a rare bright spot in a forgettable series for England.

He caused Labuschagne and Smith uncomfortable moments, removing them a combined five times in the four matches he played. Both were again rushed by Wood's pace at Headingley and this time his efforts at hurrying up Australia's top order and cutting through the tail in the first innings ended with victory. He also brought wickets at the other end; it was no coincidence that he was bowling when Moeen Ali claimed his double.

"I think the plans we had leading in, they'll remain the same," Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. "In the first innings he was swinging the ball at pace and that's a challenge for top order, lower order.

"You can plan for things but when you get out there you've got to be able to adapt and adjust. And maybe we didn't do that in the first innings of the game.

"Going forward, we're going to be challenged with that. He's a good bowler, he gives them variety in their attack and I think if we can put a few overs into him we saw that the ball speed can drop off a little bit.

"But when he's got his tail up he's going to be a handful, so I think deny him any opportunities to make inroads and keep him out there a bit longer."

When Wood knocked over Australia's tail in the first innings it was largely with the fuller delivery, crashing into the stumps of Mitchell Starc and Todd Murphy while pinning Pat Cummins lbw. In contrast, Australia bowled shorter at England's lower order when they helped add 95 in 10 overs after lunch on the second day, and used a similar approach in the chase.

By way of comparison, Australia bowled 52 deliveries classed as short or short of a length to England's Nos. 8-11 in the Test, which brought three wickets but cost 65 runs. England bowled 40 balls classed as good length or full at Australia's tail, taking four wickets and only costing 21 runs.

McDonald believed that conditions played a big part in what tactics worked well, but added Australia would assess how they went about it.

"The short ball's been used more regularly in this series than I've ever seen before," McDonald said. "And with the short ball comes the risk of runs, and that sometimes happens - shorter boundaries, faster outfield and the short ball probably didn't reap the same rewards with the lower order as it has.

"But I still think it's going to be a plan that's employed throughout the series. I think if it works you say that it works, and if it doesn't then you're probably on the opposite side.

"Day one Mark Wood had ball speed and the ball was shifting, the overheads were pretty thick and you tend to pitch the ball up a lot more in those conditions. When the sun comes out and the ball's not shifting as much, you've probably got less options on the fuller side so we've got to always balance that. We critique ourselves pretty harshly so we'll be looking into that no doubt."

Ultimately, McDonald felt it was the two-hour session late on the third day after rain where the game took its decisive swing as England worked through Australia's middle and lower order although Travis Head's 77 gave the visitors a chance.

"[There are] some areas where we can no doubt improve and a little bit of credit goes to England," he said. "At certain times they got the conditions in their favour and they maximised those, and I thought [Saturday] went a long way to deciding the fortunes of today.

"In difficult batting conditions, they maximised them with the ball and put us probably in a position where we didn't have enough runs to be as creative as we would have liked."