Mark Wood admitted that England’s preparations for the T20 World Cup were “not ideal” after two of their first three heat-up matches against Pakistan were rainy. As a result, both sides are far from keen on the road to the final meeting at the Oval on Thursday – and the transatlantic flights the next day.
Before the tournament in Australia, England played a seven–match series in Pakistan, then three matches against the hosts – one in Perth, also the venue of their first World Cup match-and a final heat-up match again against Pakistan. Fully characterized by an accumulation of 11 matches and having finished their international trips ahead of schedule, they won the trophy.
But instead of using this as a role model, this time they have taken a different approach and will travel to the Caribbean, having played at best two team matches in five months. They arrive in Barbados on Tuesday four days before the start of their tournament against Scotland.
“Some guys have played in the IPL and are ready for the game,” said Wood, who missed the IPL to ensure his fitness. “People who have not done it, is there coolness? At IPL you play all the time, other guys have seen your tricks, they have seen what you are doing.
“Maybe I’ll start the tournament fresh. I’ve worked on several things in training and you want the games to work out, but it’s a nice balance.
“One or two of us may feel that we need a game or two to get started, but no matter how prepared we are, we have to do that. There were a lot of games before the last [World Cup], but who’s to say it doesn’t work the other way around?”
Preparations were further disrupted by the absence of coach Matthew Mott from the first match, which was canceled at Headingley for family reasons, and the absence of captain Jos Buttler from the third match, who was also washed out to be at the birth of his third child.
“Things in life are sometimes more important than cricket. Both matters were,” Wood said. “I don’t think we should give them a negative turn.
“It’s easy to make excuses: we had people away, rain, what so ever. We are a professional team, we are the English cricket team, we have everything we need. We should be able to adapt and when we go out, it’s time to turn it on.”
Wood insists the team has been through a lot of useful workouts this week and has also benefited from a session with Manchester City’s first-team sports psychologist David Young. “We were very specific in our training,” he said. “There were sessions led by coaches and sessions led by players. We had the bat against the ball, we were challenged against each other in game scenarios, different phases of the game and practiced our gone bowling against some of our best batsmen.