Mark Wood is fit to bowl on day five: Trescothick

Mark Wood bowled only three out of 38 overs on day four of the fifth and final Ashes Test but England's assistant coach Marcus Trescothick made it clear that the tearaway quick is completely fit to bowl on day five. 

The right-armer has been in terrific form in the ongoing Ashes series, taking 13 wickets at 20.38 across the three Tests he has featured in this series, but 81.4 overs of high-pace bowling must have surely taken a toll on his body. 

“He's fit to bowl. I think pretty much like everybody, there are little aches and pains that are going off the back of a big five-Test series. Both teams will be travelling in the same way at the moment. But yeah, everyone is fit to bowl. It was a tactical decision,” said Trescothick.

The fifth Test is set for a blockbuster finish after a rain-curtailed day four, with Australia needing 249 runs with all wickets remaining. David Warner and Usman Khawaja have already put on 135 runs for the opening wicket and England would want Wood to be firing on all cylinders on Monday (July 31).

The problem with England’s aggressive brand of cricket is their bowling unit ends up bowling a lot more overs than the opposition. If you look at this series, the hosts have bowled 841.3 overs across the five Tests, which is 193.4 overs more than Australia. "Certainly, part of our plan is to get them to keep coming back and bowling more overs,” said Australia's assistant coach Michael di Venuto.

Talking about Wood not bowling enough on day four, di Venuto said: "I'm not sure of those tactics. Whether he is carrying an injury, whether he can only bowl a certain amount of overs, I'm not sure. There was some spin, so (I was) not surprised to see the two offspinners wheeling away at one end."

Trescothick also gave an update on Moeen Ali. The offspinner did bowl five overs on Sunday but has been struggling with a right groin strain that he picked up while batting in the first innings. "He's OK," said Trescothick. 

"You saw him bowl today. He's obviously had the little niggle that he's got. He's obviously had a bit of rest and put his feet up. It's not 100% - of course it's not. It's not going to be probably for two or three weeks from now, but we've got a little bit out of him and will continue to try to do that again tomorrow."

Australia have already retained the Ashes but now have a chance to create history. If they end up scoring the required 249 runs on day five, it will give them their first Test series win in England since 2001. As of now, they are leading 2-1 in the series. "It was an outstanding start from our two openers," di Venuto said. 

"Conditions had a lot to do with it today. It's a very good batting wicket. There are a lot of guys who have been on Ashes series over here in the past and haven't managed to win, and 20 (22) years is a long time. We're in a great position for some of the boys to get that on their résumé; we're all pretty keen to score those 250 runs tomorrow."