Former England captain Micheal Vaughan opined on the impact of Mark Wood’s stunning spell of fast bowling that dismantled the Australian batters on Day 1 of the third Ashes Test at Headingley on Thursday, July 7. Wood, who has drafted into the playing XI, left a mark soon after. He took a brilliant five-wicket-haul, bowling with stunning pace and deadly accuracy, to finish with figures of 5/34 to help restrict the Aussies to 263 in their first innings as well.
Speaking to Cricbuzz at the close of play on Day 1, Vaughan said: “Wonder what the scars he’s done in this innings going into the next innings,” he said. “Because quick bowling, it can offer scars going forward. Batters don’t want to be facing it and It’s how Mark Wood recovers now.”
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He continued: “Generally batters don’t like mystery spin and also pace. It doesn’t matter if you bat down the bottom or at the top of the order. Saw the ball he got Khawaja and Khawaja has been the rock, played with so much clarity, so much time throughout this series yet Mark Wood does him for pace. He does Cummins for pace later on, hits Carey on the head and gets him out next ball,” added Vaughan.
Since making his Test debut in 2015, Mark Wood has only played 28 matches for England so far as well. He has picked up 90 wickets at an average of 30.88, with 27 scalps coming against Australia only. He had arguably his best season a year ago, picking up 21 wickets at an average of 23.85 in five matches as well.
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“This is why I look at England’s batting now and the batters have to do the job to give Wood rest. If Mark Wood is back out there tomorrow afternoon having to bowl , then you can’t expect someone to continuously bowl at 90 MPH when he’s had one night’s rest,” said Michael Vaughan. “They’ve got to give him more rest so it’s now down to the batters. Actually thought the Bazball way kind of went to sleep in the last half hour and England played for stumps. Jonny (Bairstow) and Joe (Root) knew that they had to play for stumps.”
