As one of the fastest bowlers on the planet English paceman Mark Wood knows a thing or two about hostility, on and off the cricket field.
Speaking ahead of his fourth, and most likely last, Ashes Test series the 35-year-old has told The Guardian newspaper he’s looking forward to getting amongst the Australian top order—and also renewing his banter with Australia’s infamously brutal crowds.
“Last time I quite enjoyed it,” Wood explained of the 2021/22 Ashes series that saw him snare 17 wickets including a career-best six for 37 at the SCG, despite England being walloped 4-0.
“It was good craic back and forth.”
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“Some lads, and I’ll not name names, struggled with the hostility (from the crowds) but I tried to have fun with it and my time on the Gold Coast helped because I could relate to that,” Wood recalled.
Wood was referring to the Aussie summer of 2011/12 when he spent a season terrorising club cricketers on the Gold Coast as a tearaway 21-year-old import with Palm Beach-Currumbin.
Fourteen years later, the absence of all-time England legends Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson means Wood is set to take on a new level of Ashes responsibility as he looks to spearhead a fiery pace partnership with Jofra Archer that could well define the entire series against an enigmatic Australian batting line-up.
Wood has previously described playing in Australia as ‘the fiercest atmosphere you can be in as an Englishman.’
Given Wood will turn 36 just days after the Fifth Test in Sydney, his Ashes tour looms as his last.