Wood was 'on all fours barking like a dog' before record Headingley spell

13 July 2023 , 15:33

570     0

Mark Wood was named player of the match as England kept the Ashes alive at Headingley (Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

How do you prepare to bowl one of the fastest spells in the history of Test cricket? Well. if you're Mark Wood it's by pretending to be a dog of course.

Wood was named player of the match for his exploits in the third Ashes Test as England beat Australia by three wickets to keep the series alive. And his spell in Australia's first innings, which saw him pick up 5-34 in what was a stunning display of fast bowling particularly given he had not played cricket in almost three months.

His opening spell had an average speed of 90.4mph, the fastest by an Englishman in a home Test, while his very first over was the quickest ever recorded at Headingley with Wood clocking speeds of 91, 93, 95, 93, 94 and 93mph. He then followed that up with a 96.5mph thunderbolt in his second over and he believes he can get even faster.

And Wood's teammate Ollie Robinson has revealed the England quick was "on all-fours barking on the changing room floor" pretending to be a dog just ten minutes before the game started. "Woody's just got this mad, unique energy. There's no one else like him," Robinson said in his latest Wisden column.

"You think he's drunk half the time yet he doesn't touch a drop. Bear in mind this is a bloke who, 10 minutes before we went out, literally at 10:50am, was on all-fours barking on the changing room floor, going, 'There's a dog in the dressing room. There's a dog in here, lads…'"

Ballance set to make Test return for Zimbabwe after Yorkshire racism scandal

Robinson also branded Wood's spell "unbelievable bowling", admitting it was the "fastest thing I've ever seen". He added: "I've never seen a spell like Woody's on that first morning.

"I was at mid-off to start with, and first few balls, I thought, 'Jeez, that looks pretty quick…' He carried on through the over, finished the job, and then someone ran past me from slip and said that they were standing past my bowling mark, which is 22-and-a-half metres back!

Ollie Robinson has revealed Wood was pretending to be a dog in the dressing 10 minutes before play began on day one (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

"After the first over I went to fine leg, and I was standing no more than 15 yards behind Jonny [Bairstow], thinking, literally, 'This is the fastest thing I've ever seen'. It was crazy.

"I felt like if they hit it more than a metre either side of me it was a certain boundary, and the fact he was consistently getting the shape and movement on it as well – at that speed – was just unbelievable bowling. It was just amazing to watch and be a part of. Though not so amazing for the batters, I'd imagine…"

Wood has insisted he will be ready to unleash more "thunderbolts" in the fourth Test next week and former England quick Devon Malcolm believes he can help Ben Stokes' side produce a remarkable comeback and win the Ashes 3-2.

Matthew Cooper