England's Archer In 'Happy Place', Wood 'Full Of Energy' Ahead Of Ashes

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newspoint|16-11-2025

England#39;s fast bowling cartel are relishing playing in Australian conditions with star quick Jofra Archer in a happy place and brimming with confidence while Mark Wood is full of energy.

That#39;s the view of strapping fellow paceman Brydon Carse who is one of six speedsters in the tourists#39; squad vying to be in the XI for the first Test starting in Perth on Friday.

Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, and Josh Tongue are the others.

Look, it#39;s exciting, South African-born Carse said after England#39;s only warm-up game against a second-tier England Lions ended on Saturday.

I think we#39;ve got a group of six bowlers who, whatever dynamic we go with, we#39;re relishing those conditions.

England are yet to decide whether they go with an all-out pace attack at Perth Stadium where the wicket is renowned as fast and bouncy, or include a spinner.

During the three-day warm-up, specialist spinner Shoaib Bashir played for the Lions with part-timer Joe Root bowling 14.5 overs to take the pressure off the frontline quicks.

Injury-prone Archer is firming for selection after making it through the warm-up unscathed, while Wood was cleared of any major issues after complaining of hamstring stiffness on day one.

He#39;s really confident going into the series, I think he#39;s in a happy place where his body#39;s at and his cricket, Carse said of Archer who is two Tests into his comeback after four years of fitness setbacks.

It#39;s just so good to have him fully fit and around the group.

He#39;s obviously got that X-factor, and he#39;s shown that around the world. So it#39;s very exciting that he#39;s in our bowling line-up.

Carse also said Wood was in high spirits after his injury scare.

He#39;s obviously received that positive news.

So he#39;s all up and about and full of energy at the moment, Carse said.

He#39;s got a huge amount of resilience,

You look back at some of the setbacks that he#39;s had over his career, to keep coming out and keep going through the processes to get back out on the field, it#39;s very exciting, and it shows the sort of character that he has.

A battered Australia head into the Test without injured pace spearheads Pat Cummins (back) and Josh Hazlewood (hamstring).

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Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and spinner Nathan Lyon are set to lead the weakened attack with Brendan Doggett looking likely to make his debut.