In what is quite a feat for any English player on this benighted Ashes tour, Wood will head home with his reputation enhanced. Even if he deserves more than the eight wickets he has taken so far, Australian crowds have taken to him much as they did to Darren Gough in the Nineties, applauding the relentless application and the ability to generate speeds of 90mph for extended spells. Whenever he bounded in during Australia’s second innings, there was the everpresent threat of a breakthrough. When he was rested, Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green soaked up the pressure with consummate ease.
For all the laments over the state of England’s batting this series, a similar inquisition is warranted into the bowling. Rarely has it appeared even remotely penetrating enough: in four Tests, Australia have been bowled out just twice. For all the plaudits attracted by Stuart Broad’s five-for here in Sydney, he still went for 101 runs. There was little suggestion of an encore either, as he and fellow old stager James Anderson both went wicketless, their lines and lengths deftly dealt with by the wily Khawaja.
While Broad and Anderson have both conjured fleeting bursts of brilliance over the past month, neither has truly dictated the shape of a match by inflicting damage with the first new ball. When Steve Smith was bowled for 23 by a ball from Jack Leach that kept low, it seemed as if England might even create an unlikely platform for victory. Alas, this attack has not yet come close to ripping through the Australian batting order. Just as Travis Head took the game away from England in Brisbane, Khawaja has gladly embraced the role of saboteur in Sydney.
On the eve of this Ashes, Ian Chappell said of Khawaja: “He’s a good player against mediocre bowling, but against good bowling I don’t think there’s much future there.” While Khawaja has fashioned the most elegant riposte to his critics with his twin SCG centuries, there is little doubt that much of the bowling he faced was of rank mediocrity. Nine overs by those occasional spinners Joe Root and Dawid Malan disappeared with no wickets, no maidens, and 48 runs scored. Even the giant Green, tentative and awkward with the bat to this point, was made to look like a world-beater.
If England are ever to buck the trend of Ashes shellackings here in Australia, it is clear that they need to construct their next bowling attack around pure pace. The angle of the decisive Wood deliveries to Labuschagne, wide outside off stump, was one that this most watchful of No 3s would usually have left alone. What did for him was the sheer speed with which the ball reared up at him, causing him to panic. It all made for a tantalising hypothetical: what if Jofra Archer had not been bowled into the ground and spared elbow surgery? What mayhem might he and Wood have been able to produce between them?
It is not too late for such a double act to come to pass. Wood will be 35 by the time of the next Ashes tour, Archer just 30. The experiment is worth pursuing: for all the sterling service rendered by Broad and Anderson, neither possess the express pace needed to have a consistent impact in Australian conditions. England are crying out for a strike-bowling partnership to rival Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, who in combination have wrought destruction at vital moments. Bringing together their two speed kings, Wood and Archer, is their surest means of reviving an attack that has grown worryingly toothless.
