Wood: I want to be the game-changer
England’s fastest bowler, Mark Wood, is confidently looking forward to their Champions Trophy semi-final against Pakistan at Cardiff tomorrow as a result of their emphatic victory over New Zealand in the qualifying round.
“We take confidence from our last game there,” Wood said. “We know the conditions and the dimensions of the ground, but Cardiff ’s been good for us, we feel like we’re going to do well there and we did well against a good New Zealand side the other day.”
Wood is coming to specialise in dismissing the opposition’s leading batsmen. Against Australia his four wickets included David Warner and Steve Smith. Against New Zealand, who were up with the rate, Wood dismissed their captain, Kane Williamson, by holding the ball across the seam and producing – with his express pace – a lifter that snorted at his gloves, whereupon New Zealand collapsed.
“Every team has struggled to get the white ball to swing and they have used wobble seams to try and get it to move that way, but what has been really effective in this tournament has been the crossseam,” Wood explained. “We’re just trying to get a bit more out of the pitch because it doesn’t seem to matter how quick you bowl now.”
In the first semi-final, as in the qualifiers, Eoin Morgan, the England captain, will be looking to Wood for mid-innings injections of pace to take wickets.
“It’s a nice feeling to have the confidence of the captain,” Wood said. “Subconsciously I don’t know if it makes me try a little bit harder, but at the moment I seem to be getting some of the best players out. It’s a nice knack to have and hopefully I can keep it up.
“You push your shoulders back, puff your chest out a little bit, you feel like the captain really needs you and you want to be the man who changes the game, and that’s what I’ve tried to do.”
Wood’s left ankle seems to be getting stronger after his third operation on it. “My body’s holding up really well. The backroom staff have been fantastic since I’ve come back into the set-up, and hopefully I’ll be ready for the semi-final.”
“We’ve got one hell of a team and I love being part of it. When we were three wickets down against Australia, I thought I would have to get the pads on again, but it’s great to be part of a team with so many game-changers.
“When we went back out after the rain delay and Morgs hit the first ball for four, everyone just thought, ‘Here we go, let’s fight fire with fire’ – I don’t know if Australia were expecting that, but it shifted the momentum back towards us a bit. That partnership was from two real leaders in the team – Morgs is obviously our captain, but Stokesey [Ben Stokes] is a real leader in the way he carries himself and drags everyone else along with him.”