\n<\/p>\n
Mark Wood is fully fit and available for selection in the first Ashes Test on Friday, having come through an extended spell of bowling at full pace in the Perth Stadium nets without issue \u2013 before emerging with his pads on to have a bat minutes later \u2013 as England\u2019s seamers found conditions at the ground so good they were \u201clicking their lips\u201d.<\/p>\n
Wood\u2019s left leg was heavily strapped throughout, as it has been since he returned after surgery to that knee in March, but the tightness in his hamstring that concerned him during the first day of England\u2019s warm-up against the Lions last week has dissipated. It is believed that the scan he underwent last Friday was primarily intended to alleviate the player\u2019s fitness worries, with the team\u2019s medical staff never hugely concerned.<\/p>\n
Jamie Smith was one of the batters who faced Wood in the nets on Tuesday. \u201cHe was absolutely rapid today, I can tell you that first-hand,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s near enough full tilt, so it\u2019s good signs for us. It feels like, if he\u2019s good to go and the management feels he\u2019s good to go, I don\u2019t see why [he wouldn\u2019t play].\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s training session was England\u2019s first at Perth Stadium, after the players were given two days off to get over the exertions of their warmup against the Lions at Lilac Hill. Though they have had only distant views of the ground\u2019s drop-in pitch, the squad\u2019s seamers found conditions in the nets much more to their liking than the softer ground in Guildford \u2013 though Jofra Archer, following his own training plan, did not bowl at all, his involvement restricted to batting and running.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike any fast bowler I like a bit of pace and bounce in any wicket, especially after last week at Lilac Hill, which obviously wasn\u2019t as quick,\u201d Josh Tongue said. \u201cBowling in the nets, it was a lot more true bounce and a lot more pace in the wicket. I was batting next to Smudge [Smith] when he was facing Woody and he was definitely getting it through. I think as bowlers, you definitely lick your lips.\u201d<\/p>\n
While English bowlers have traditionally struggled in Australia \u2013 of those who have bowled at least 25 overs in Ashes matches here this century the top 12 by bowling average are all Australian \u2013 Tongue is convinced the current pack can prosper. \u201cI feel like the group of bowlers we\u2019ve got now, the likes of Jofra and Woody with the x-factor of pace and bouncy wickets, the skills we\u2019ve got as a group \u2013 I think we can give it a good shot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wood has not played a first-class game since England\u2019s first Test against Sri Lanka in August 2024 but Cameron Green, the Australian who has played only three times, and bowled a total of 20 overs, since August, said this should not be a concern. \u201cI probably would prefer a few more competitive overs but at the same time I think it\u2019s a double-edged sword,\u201d he said. \u201cI think you come into a series so fresh, and I think especially in a five-Test series you want to be as fresh as you can at the back end.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Jamie Smith and Josh Tongue got their first taste of Perth Stadium on Tuesday. <\/span> Photograph: Stefan Gosatti\/EPA<\/p>\n As wicketkeeper Smith is also looking forward to playing in Australian conditions. \u201cI\u2019m quite excited, hearing about a lot of pace and bounce,\u201d he said. \u201cI spent a lot of time last summer in conditions that were reasonably slow and low, standing a lot closer than normal. It\u2019d be nice here, hopefully with that pace and bounce, we can stand a little bit further back and that should be an enjoyable challenge.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Smith has said that he would \u201cabsolutely not\u201d attempt a long-distance stumping of the type so controversially executed by Australia\u2019s Alex Carey at Lord\u2019s in 2023, if mainly for practical rather than ethical reasons. \u201cOut here I\u2019d be too far back to hit the stumps,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I try to do that stuff in white-ball games I\u2019m useless at it. I wouldn\u2019t hit the stumps anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n Carey himself refused to be drawn into a conversation about his infamous dismissal of Jonny Bairstow \u2013 \u201cI think the series is shaping up to be a pretty good one, there\u2019s not too much hype that needs to be put on it\u201d \u2013 but was prepared to provide an emphatic endorsement for his South Australia teammate Brendan Doggett, the 31-year-old seamer in line to make his international debut this week as a result of Josh Hazlewood\u2019s hamstring injury.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a fantastic teammate, really experienced and bowling as well as he ever has,\u201d Carey said. \u201cIn his last five first-class games he\u2019s taken four five-fers, so he comes into this squad with great form. If he does get his chance, I think this wicket will suit him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark Wood is fully fit and available for selection in the first Ashes Test on Friday, having come through an extended spell of bowling at full pace in the Perth Stadium nets without issue \u2013 before emerging with his pads on to have a bat minutes later \u2013 as England\u2019s seamers found conditions at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[16527,3439,311,7916,19519,7593,876,19518,8668,76,3985],"class_list":{"0":"post-34267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ashes","9":"tag-declared","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fit","12":"tag-lick","13":"tag-lips","14":"tag-mark","15":"tag-seamers","16":"tag-surface","17":"tag-test","18":"tag-wood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}