Wood Wary Of Archer ‘Threat’

The ECB’s decision to cut a player’s residency period from seven years to three means the 23-year-old Barbados-born all-rounder Archer is around a month away from being eligible to play for England.

And, while he is inexperienced on the international cricket scene, there will be calls for him to be involved in the shorter formats of the game for England because of impressive quick bowling and good form in global Twenty20 matches.

It leaves Wood as one player who could find himself jettisoned from the squad ahead of the World Cup on home soil from the end of May.

The 29-year-old Durham fast bowler enjoyed a good personal performance in the 2-1 Test series defeat against the West Indies with a first five-wicket haul in St Lucia.

However, while he has maintained good pace in the ongoing one-day international series, Wood has only taken one wicket from two games so far.

As a result he is looking to get some more wickets under his belt in the remaining three ODIs to help the team and ensure he is not the fall guy for Archer.

“I think I am one of the guys under threat, but I wouldn’t say that night and day I’m up worried about Archer’s role,” said Wood.

“It is not really talked about in the dressing room or anything like that. But he is a world class player and I’d be stupid to think that if I didn’t put in the hard yards that my place wouldn’t be up for grabs, because he bowls quick as well.

“They (the selectors) pretty much know everybody – Tom (Curran), David (Willey), myself – it is a pretty cemented group we’ve got even without the likes of Sam Curran and Olly Stone, so we’ll just have to wait and see what they do.