Wood marks England’s task ahead of the second Ashes Test

In the Ashes opener at Perth, England’s pacers helped them take early advantage before Travis Head’s remarkable blitz handed them an eight-wicket defeat.

England pacer Mark Wood, who hit high speeds during the Perth Test, reckons the tourists will need to pick themselves up before their next contest.

“Australia will have confidence from that [Perth] win. I know it's only one guy [Travis Head] who's played particularly well but as a group that will give them a lift,” Wood told former England international Stuart Broad on For The Love Of Cricket podcast.

“[After] winning that type of game, their batters will be more confident - can one of them play an innings like that? It's up to us to fight fire with fire, come back in and try to knock them over again.”

England faced a barrage of sensational pace bowling led by Mitchell Starc (7/58) on Day 1, and were folded for 172 in the first innings. But the visiting pacers came good in their first showing, with skipper Ben Stokes (5/23) leading the charge.

Carrying a 40-run lead, England looked ahead in the game before Starc (3/55), Scott Boland (4/33), and Brendan Doggett (3/51) helped pull Australia back in the contest, setting them a target of 205 to chase down.

With Travis Head filling in the opening spot for an injured Usman Khawaja, the former stepped up with one of the great Test knocks, smashing 123 off merely 83 deliveries, to give Australia a series lead at the end of second day itself.

Wood stated that the side needed to learn from their mistakes, but also acknowledge the positives.

“There has to be reflection of what went on, understand the disappointment but also know we did some good things in this game.”

The fast bowler reflected that these were still early days in the series.

“Can we take them into the other four games? This is not one, it's one of five. We've been hit pretty hard in round one, but we've got other rounds to try and throw some back.”

Among the positives were England’s pace bowling performance in the first innings, and Wood had high praise for his compatriots.

“I definitely feel we've got 20 wickets, certainly. The team has been designed to take 20 wickets in these conditions, [Brydon] Carse bowled beautifully this game, ran in all the time.

“He made things happen, he was constantly at people. Gus [Atkinson] didn't get any wickets but he nibbled it around and beat the bat a lot. Jofra [Archer], I thought we saw the best of him, especially that opening spell.

“As a group we can take a lot of confidence from that game.”

With the next encounter, all set to be a day-night outing, Wood was hopeful England’s tactics will keep them in contention.

“Being a day-night Test, we know around night time it can zip around. If it can zip around at pace that can make it doubly difficult [to bat].”

The second Ashes Test will begin from 4 December, with crucial ICC World Test Championship points also on the line.