It’s fair to say that Luke Wood is really enjoying his cricket.
Having taken five wickets in his last three games, including two in two balls against Northants, the 21-year-old has solidified his place in the Outlaws NatWest T20 Blast squad, much to his delight.
"I’ve loved every minute so far," he said.
"It’s a format I’ve always wanted to break into the side for, and having played a good part so far, it’s nice to get some of that added pressure off you and enjoy it a bit more.
"The last few games I’ve loved every minute, especially at home playing in front of 14,000 people -it’s been unbelievable."
Having played all three home T20s, Wood has been thrilled with the atmosphere at Trent Bridge and he was keen to highlight how vital the home support is for the side.
"If you’re on the boundary you can’t even shout to someone on the 30-yard circle – they just don’t hear you,” he said - such is the volume of support in Nottingham.
“Especially at the end of the game, the atmosphere is incredible.
"The crowds have been unbelievable and they keep getting better."
Wood’s rise to the first team has coincided with Tom Moores taking over the gloves from Chris Read, with the Nottinghamshire captain moving into a coaching role during the short format of the game, and the seamer is delighted to have his close friend alongside him.
"Me and Tom are very good friends," he said.
"I spend a lot of time with him away from the field and it’s nice for one of your close mates to come through the same development with you.
"He’s making his way in the Notts team and so am I and it’s nice doing it with someone you’re close to.
"You see Hales [Alex Hales], Fletch [Luke Fletcher] and Bally [Jake Ball] - they’re all close mates and it’s nice to have someone like Tom that’s doing it with you – it takes the pressure off."
Speaking of his team mates, Wood is keen to keep learning from the experience in the Trent Bridge dressing room.
"People like Alex [Hales], Jake [Ball] and obviously for me, Harry [Gurney], they’re big mentors.
"Harry’s done this for a long time and you see the performances they all put in, after having years of experience, they know a lot about what they’re doing so it’s always good to watch and learn from them."
After the game at Lancashire was rained off last night, Wood and the rest of the squad’s attention has now turned to Sunday's (30 July) match against top-of-the-table Yorkshire Vikings. The Outlaws will be hoping to make amends for a 48-run defeat in the their first T20 of the season earlier this month.
“It’s frustrating when the weather plays a part in the games,” he said.
"But all we can do is hopefully take the momentum we’ve got from winning three out of four games in the last few days and take that into the match against Yorkshire. We'll try and forget about Worcestershire and the rained off game and focus on Sunday.
"As we’ve gone on we’ve gradually got better.
"We didn’t play anywhere near as well as we know we can in the first game and we still haven’t as a team had an amazing performance.
He added: "It’s encouraging that we still have that in the locker to come so hopefully we can pull out a full team performance in every aspect - then we should get the win.
"One of the main threats they [Yorkshire] have is a lot of momentum - when teams get on a roll it makes them harder to beat. If you look at the squad they've obviously got good players, but we have a good squad too."
"In T20 anyone can beat anyone on the day. If we have a day out we can beat anyone - and we back ourselves to beat anyone. it's a case of playing well and executing."
Notts Outlaws squad to face Yorkshire Vikings (from): Brendan Taylor, Steven Mullaney, Riki Wessels, Alex Hales, Harry Gurney, Luke Wood, Samit Patel, Tom Moores, Brett Hutton, Jake Ball, Dan Christian, Ish Sodhi, Billy Root.
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