'We have a huge target on our backs being on home turf in the Champions Trophy'
Thursday 1 June 2017 11:32, UK
In his first column, England fast bowler Mark Wood looks back at the ODI series win over South Africa, assesses the hosts' chances in the Champions Trophy and explains how street smarts trumped formal education in the team quiz...
Before the start of the ODI series against South Africa there was a lot made of our training camp. I don't think anyone would have made a big deal of it if we'd done a training camp in England but because we went away to Spain it was almost seen as a boys' holiday, a jolly up.
Actually, it was pretty tough going, we did a lot of fitness, I had a little bit of a niggle in my groin so I did a lot of work with the physio, and we also did a hell of a lot of fielding. A general get together was just good for team morale. We enjoyed a couple of nights and did things like a quiz to mix it up while we were there.
Mark Saxby, the physio, has been around for years so he runs the quiz night along with his deputies. This year it was Alex Hales, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler - Nathan Leamon, the performance analyst, does all the high-tech computer quiz stuff and Sax reads out the questions.
The categories were cricket knowledge, knowledge on Spain, countries that we visit as an England group and there was a music round as well. It was Strauss, Sam Billings, Ben Stokes and myself on our team and we came out winners.
You'd have thought looking at that team it would have been the educated Andrew Strauss and Sam Billings who got all the answers but it was actually the street-wise Mark Wood and Ben Stokes that carried the team along! I don't like to blow my own trumpet but me and Stokesy did all right on that little quiz team.
I think there's huge benefit to things like that because everyone has a laugh together and you prepare yourself mentally for what's coming up. It's nice and relaxed and creates a good feeling in the camp before the hard, competitive stuff starts.
I truly believe that we can beat anyone but South Africa are obviously a fantastic team, ranked No 1 in the world, and you take a huge confidence boost when you beat a team like that.
We've shown that we're a really dangerous team too, though, with some match-winners and real game-changers: Stokesy, Eoin Morgan, Jos - we know how dangerous he can be - and Moeen proving his worth as well.
Liam Plunkett has continued to lead the way with the ball and pick up wickets when we need them so we've got lads who are all contributing and I just feel that even against the best sides they'll be as worried about us as perhaps we are about them.
Personally, it was great to be able to help the team to win the second one-dayer, and the series, in Southampton.
After my previous over, even as I went down to fine leg after being hit for six, the crowd were right behind me in that corner - "keep your head up, Woody!" and all that kind of thing.
You're focusing on the game but you can still hear what's going on behind you and they were really supportive. That gave me a bit of a lift to think "right, this last over, this is the plan".
Jake Ball bowled a brilliant last three or four balls that only went for one run but nine times out of 10 in that scenario, needing seven from the last over, you'd still think they would have won.
The plan was to stick to banging the ball into the pitch because it was a little bit two-paced and had a little bit of extra bounce. So if I was bowling cross-seam, if one hit the seam it would climb a little bit and if it hit the shiny side it would hopefully just skid through a bit lower.
Also, if I'd been at Yorkshire, for instance, I would have had to bowl completely differently because the dimensions of the ground are different, the pitch is different but, in this case, that was the plan and we were going to stick to it. Luckily for me, it paid off.
We took our time between balls, discussed maybe changing it and going for yorkers but I said to Morgs, "if I get it wrong I'll regret it so let's keep doing this". I certainly didn't want to bowl any more length balls!
In situations like that you have to weigh up the conditions. There are times when you might bowl slower balls or yorkers depending on the batsmen, the field, the pitch so it all goes hand in hand and you just have to make a decision and, at that time, we felt that was the best way to try and win the game.
I'd have liked to have taken a few more wickets in the series and I could have bowled better at Headingley - where I thought I was a bit expensive - but I feel in a good place. My ankle feels really good, we've got a good method of taping it and managing it between games so I'm pretty positive leading into Bangladesh.
We'll have a huge target on our backs being in our home country during the Champions Trophy and people are now expecting us to go into games and win.
A lot of the lads love that sort of pressure and although Bangladesh are a really dangerous side, I'm sure they're all confident going into the game in good form and good spirits and we hope we can get off to a winning start.
We've played some good cricket at The Oval in recent times so I don't see why we can't go there full of confidence and ready to give it a good go.
After that we play New Zealand in Cardiff and then Australia, which is always a big game, at Edgbaston. I'd say, along with Trent Bridge, it's probably our loudest ground so I'm sure Edgbaston will be rocking when we play Australia.
We'll definitely be up for it and I'm sure they will be too so it'll make for a great atmosphere and hopefully be our 12th man can give us the extra lift we need to win the game.
At Durham, we consider ourselves a tight group, coming from a region where no one else is really close to us - the nearest ground is Yorkshire two hours away - but this England squad is just as close as that. We have a huge togetherness, probably one of the best sides I've played in.
Everyone wants everyone to do well, the lads who aren't playing contribute massively and are pushing the lads in the team to be even better. Everyone has one common goal and that is to do well for England.
Watch the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy live on Sky Sports - starting with England against Bangladesh, live on Sky Sports 2 from 10am this Thursday.
