Mark Wood ‘miffed’ to be left out of England T20 side but says whitewash shows it was ‘right call’

Mark Wood has become accustomed to watching England play cricket of late.

In the home summer, he sat out five straight Test matches, and now he has watched Eoin Morgan’s team take a T20 whitewash against South Africa.

With Jofra Archer now heading home to rest, Wood will get his chance in Friday’s first ODI against South Africa.

There is a balance to be struck, says Wood, between letting Morgan know that he is a bit “miffed” to be left out – which he very much has reason to be – and being the consummate team man.

“Yeah I think so, a little bit,” said Wood when asked if he needed to let Morgan know how he felt. “Miffed is a great word.

“But I still hold core values of being a good team bloke. The team always comes first and you always want your mates to do well. There is a competitive edge that you don't want to be the one to miss out, you want to be the guy that's out there, but Morgy has a very open and honest dressing room and it's the same with Spoons [coach Chris Silverwood].

“If I want a reason for why I was left out of how I could get better or stay in the team, he would give me that answer. It's not about banging on his door or trying to knock it down. It's just about having a quick chat – how can I improve, how can I get in the team? He's very open and honest with his answers.”

He accepts, too, that the outcome of the T20 series meant Morgan’s decision “proved to be the right call”.

“It's hard to get into this team and you've got to take your chance when you get it,” he said.

“If I'm in form and firing I'd like to think I could hold my spot, but that's down to me.

“I had a conversation with Morgy before the first game, he was saying it's a tough call but they're going to go with the team they went with. It wasn't anything I did wrong, they thought I was preparing well, it was just the gut feeling he and and the team he went with.

“That's international sport. We've just won 3-0 here it proved to be the right call.”

Wood also addressed England’s use of coded signals from analyst Nathan Leamon to captain Morgan in the middle.

The move had been approved by ICC match referee Andy Pycroft and Wood sees no issue with it – not least because Morgan is unlikely to use the information.

“Honestly I wouldn't know,” he said. “I thought it was shoe sizes. It wouldn't bother me if someone was holding something up. Until this morning I didn't even know about it, that's how much notice I took.

“I think it's good for the captain to have. Morgy is a very instinctive captain anyway so I'm not sure he needs that much but it's great to have there. Nathan does a good job, so any little bit that can help. I'm not sure I'll be taking too much notice of it, I'm too busy worrying about other things.

“They've cleared it haven't they, with the match referee and stuff first. If they didn't think it was okay I'm sure they'd say no.

“Maybe this is part of the new way of cricket. We're always looking for ways to improve it. Maybe this is it, the analyst gets to hold up a scorecard like [Strictly Come Dancing judge] Craig Revel Horwood and we've got a new game show.”

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