Wood: England 'hit hard' but still have four games to 'throw some back'

Mark Wood has called on England to rouse themselves from the canvas and "throw some back" at Australia in the next four rounds of this Ashes campaign.

Travis Head's haymakers confirmed a two-day defeat at the Optus Stadium, but England's batters were culpable for letting Australia off the ropes, having led by 105 with nine second-innings wickets in hand. Head's 123 takedown evoked Mike Tyson's observation that "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face", as an attack who were relentless in their aggression and accuracy in the first innings were rocked comprehensively in the second.

Out and about ahead of the match, England's players kept a low profile on Sunday. Many stayed in their hotels rooms, as much to come to terms with the chastening defeat as avoid a city teeming with buoyant Aussies and demoralised English punters wondering to do with their spare days. While there is more introspection to come, Wood, whose 38th Test cap was his first competitive appearance in close to nine months after knee surgery in March, has urged the team to come out fighting.

"We know this is one of five," Wood told Stuart Broad on the For The Love Of Cricket podcast. "There has to be reflection of what went on, understand the disappointment but also know we did some good things in this game.

"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."

With the second Test at the Gabba still 10 days away, Wood admitted he looked into driving from Perth to Brisbane - a coast-to-coast journey that takes over four days. He even explored hiring a camper van, before being convinced otherwise. "I did speak to a local who said if you go across the country, that's a big danger. So you'd have to drive around the coast. But I did look at it."

Instead, the 35-year-old will take a less-fancied flight with the majority of the Ashes squad on Wednesday. Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts are the only three who will drop into the Prime Minister's XI match for the Lions, leaving for Canberra on Tuesday. The onus has been on keeping the group together until the "shellshock" wears off.

"When you have a loss like that, you want to stick together" Wood said. "I think that's really important. Emotions will be raw for everyone at home, when you get close and start believing in the team and have that letdown feeling. There's nothing I can say on a podcast that will make people think, 'oh they've solved it, I feel better now'. It's going to hurt and it should hurt for a few days, the players feel that as well.

"It is difficult but what can you do? We're stuck here, it's not as though we can get up and leave for Brisbane. If I could drive across the country I probably would just to keep my mind going but we're stuck here."

That Wood bowled just 11 overs in the match - fast throughout, striking batters, including Cameron Green on the grille, but finishing wicketless for 44 - suggests he should be good to go again for the day-night Test. He played one of two pink-ball games on the previous Ashes tour, starring in the final match at Hobart with 6 for 37 in the second innings and nine in the match.

Indeed, the whole attack could be rolled out again. Despite getting bossed by Head in the second innings, there was plenty of encouragement in the first - snuffing the hosts out for 132 for what should have been a match-defining 40-run lead - to suggest an all-pace attack can get the job done on Australian pitches, whatever colour the ball.

"I definitely feel we've got 20 wickets, certainly. The team has been designed to take 20 wickets in these conditions," Wood said.

"[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. 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.

"Australia will have confidence from that win. I know it's only one guy who's played particularly well but as a group that will give them a lift, 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."