What did it mean for you to play for England?

[laughs] Everything.

I think it was a dream.

Obviously when you, I grew up in the back garden and I used to write the teams down, England versus Australia.

I used to do all the actions.

Um, come to the beach like this, round the garages, round the back of me mum and dad's, up the local cricket club 50 yards away.

In the summer we'd put the net up.

Yeah

And who do you credit for that ability to, to bring that pace to your game?

Um, well, a mixture of people really.

I think, um, Stevie Williams was me coach at Ashton, and then going to Durham, John Windows did a lot of work with me, run up and, um, alignment and stuff like that to try and help me.

And I, I gradually got quicker on the academy.

Then, um, probably with England it would've been sort of Kevin Shine was the, the original one.

Um, coming through England Lions and pace programs and things like that, so him a lot.

And then from there, the last part of my career of getting quicker, probably someone like a Neil Killeen and maybe a, a John Lewis.

And I imagine, Woody, when you know yourself and you know your body, sometimes you might, you might say, "Well, actually, I think I could do more than that."

... accept what he's got?

No, because I think ...

No, because some of the shots he plays where he hits for four and six, I think, "Well, I couldn't do that either." So it's like, it's rough for the smooth, isn't it? Sometimes when he dances down and hits Stark over the top for six, and then they put the field back and he knocks it for one, I think, "Oh, my word, this guy," like, he did this against the best attacks.

I know what you're saying in terms of, like, being less risky.

Today he played really well.

I think just looked risk-free, played with ease, ticked the score along without you really noticing.

I mean, some of the, some of the things that I would used, be used to seeing with him, he, he would dance down and hit people over extra cover, over mid-off and mid-on for six.

Played

It was 2-0 down.

No, not really.

I think it were just searching.

We're under big pr- I felt like it was big, under big pressure.

Like, people can say what they want to about when Australia come here, the, you know, they, they go under the radar.

They...

But that, it's tot- if they get followed like we got followed in Australia, I'll, I, I don't, I would be amazed because every corner we went on, every corner.

Train in the morning, and then you got an afternoon to do something

Um, and things did not start well, Mark, would you say?

No. Um, you know, New Zealand to get 100 runs in 19 overs is definitely not what England would have planned.

I think England allowed Jameson to get into a sort of hitting rhythm where all of a sudden Phillips could just naturally play.

He looked in good touch.

He took on the short ball, unlike the night before.

Uh, and the, the runs just sort of accumulated quickly.

Um, and England then lost scope of the game and, and things run away from them.

Yeah.

Mm

...

in the power play has been sensational.

Someone that come under a little bit of fire, um, in the World Cup and things with people questioning and after the Ashes.

Rightly so, we all get a bit of stick after Australia.

But, um, you know, he's come back in this IPL and showed his class.

Um, I think the team, for me, if I had to pick a team rather than a player, it would be RCB from the simple fact that when you, when you win that competition for that franchise with Kohli being the m- the, the superstar that he is, um, and that over the years they've had de Villiers, Chris Gayle, and you think of the superstars that they've had and they've never won it.

Mm.

Do you, do you watch cricket? Have you watched the World Cup, for example, while you've been injured, or do you find that a difficult thing to do, mate?

Uh, a little bit of both.

Like, I have at times, and then at other times I haven't.

I've, I've watched highlights.

Um, sometimes I've watched the games.

I think I was particularly interested in, you know, when there's a big controversial ...

So like Joss's, for example, people are saying, "Oh, Joss is not doing well." I've been watching because I've been desperate for him to do well and, and so I've watched his last few innings in particular.

Mm

Um, but, um, you know, don't know what your opinion is on that, but Brookie's pretty special, isn't he?

Yeah, I think he, I think he's summed it up brilliantly.

I think he's one of our best, um...

You know, you don't, not many players play a knock like that where it's match winning.

Um, I think they're the, the best players that you...

W- with bat or ball that I've played with are the lads that affect the game.

It's not just, like, getting five or getting 100.

It just kisses on.

And the first one from Rob Clack, who's not really a question, he just says, "I hope Woody is okay and on the mend." So I can see from the background you are at Loughborough, so give us a bit of an update on life as Mark Wood at the moment.

Well, we call her for the Death Star.

Every time we're here it's an, some sort of testing or some sort of review.

So we're down here, um, all the test guys, so Root's here, um, Pope you have seen, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, um, Bashir.

So it's a quite a big group here.

And we are doing, you know, two clear time trials, um, jump testing, getting a general platform of where the guys are leading into the summer.

Uh, my own personal, um, position is one of, I'm sort of in a holding pattern, as you would say, on the old flying scope.

[laughs]

Mark, when did you get the call to say you're gonna have to pack your bags, you might be going to a World Cup?

Um, it was probably about four days ago.

No, it wasn't.

It was, um, I think it was three days ago, um, we got the confirmation.

Um, so, but the week leading up to that, it was just so many, like, screenshots of, like, Bangladeshi journalists and all these tweets.

All the boys were just flying round saying like, "Is this true? Is this gonna be happening?" And I remember I called my dad and I was like, "Oh, we might be going to the World Cup, I think." And he was like, "Nah, these things always, like, sort themselves out." And then two days later he was trying to book flights to Kolkata.

So yeah.

So how has it, not necessarily how has it become you guys, but, like, how does it feel to have had the disappointment back last summer and then now you're like, "Oh my God, we're on the eve of a World Cup"?