It's June 2023 and we are at the Edgbaston nets two days out from the opening Test of the Ashes. The Australians are just about finishing up their training session. It's then that news comes through that Mark Wood has been left out of the playing XI in Birmingham.

And when it gets relayed to the two batters in the nets, the response is a lot of amused chuckling and hooting.

"Whattt? Woody's not playing?" goes one of them.

It isn't said quite with a sense of jubilation or even an excited sigh of relief. But more with pleasant surprise that the Aussies won't have to worry about contending with England's fastest bowler.

As it turned out, Wood didn't play the second Test at Lord's either before turning the series on its head after being introduced at Leeds for the third Test with Australia having taken a 2-0 lead in the Ashes.

It's unlikely the Australians will be made to wait to deal with Wood this time around though. Even if there were some concerns coming into this week around Wood's preparation, especially in the wake of him having injured his hamstring during England's warm-up game, even requiring scans before he was cleared.

But if anything, the only person who could have potentially come in Wood's way of proving his fitness for the first Test in Perth ironically was his captain Ben Stokes. When he accidentally almost walked into Wood at one stage as the 36-year-old was charging into bowl during his very impressive 8-over burst on Tuesday morning.

Thankfully danger was averted as Wood stopped in his tracks and walked back to the top of his mark. To continue running in at full steam and delivering an ominous reminder to the Australians of just how much of a difference he'd make to England's bowling challenge on the Perth Stadium surface.

Wood had his left leg heavily strapped throughout the session. And spent most of the first bits hanging at the back. Before bowling his first couple of deliveries off a shortish run followed by steaming in at full tilt for the next 35-odd minutes. It was a rapid spell too, one which had all the trademarks of Wood at his best.

There were pacy bouncers, searing yorkers, very full deliveries that snuck down the leg-side, and multiple deliveries that rushed past the outside-edge of the right-handers. Wood did take a tumble too as per norm but only once, and that was probably the only time he looked a tad concerned, as he checked the tight strapping on his leg.

He looked threatening for large parts of his stint three days out from the Test, and though he's now bowled a combined 16 overs on tour, including 8 in the warm-up game on Lilac Hill, his workloads seem to be coming together rather nicely from an English perspective. To the extent that Wood got a high-five from coach Brendon McCullum as he neared the end of his burst. He then proceeded to pad up and have a hit himself before signing autographs and sharing a few laughs with the English media.

Though there were enough signs to suggest that Wood should be good to go on Friday, England might want to see one more spell from him in the next two days. Or maybe they don't.

With Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood both ruled out of the first Test, this is probably England's best chance ever to draw first blood in an away Ashes. And it would make sense if they are keen to hit the Aussies with all their heavy artillery straight up, which of course includes the combination of Wood and Jorfra Archer.

There maybe some sense in not wanting to risk Wood here since his air-speed should be valuable on the flattish pitches we've seen this summer at the Adelaide Oval, which will be where we head for the third Test next month. But it's unlikely England will want to play the waiting game on that front and instead unleash Wood on the bouncy Perth pitch.

They were mightily guilty of being conservative four years ago when they left out Stuart Broad on what proved to be a green-top at the Gabba, just like they did Wood, who averages 23.74 for his 31 wickets in 7 Tests since 2021 against Australia, for the first two Tests on home soil in 2023.

Unlike at Edgbaston, there were no chuckles or exclamations of grand astonishment from the Australian camp when they hit the nets a bit later in the day. Instead, they just buckled down and prepared themselves for the challenge of facing Wood from the early going this Ashes summer.