Prolific at First-class level with over 17,000 runs to his name, Barry Wood was a traditional opener who loved to see the shine off the new ball and blunt opposition attacks. Extremely nuggety in character, Wood's international career was a stop gap one, making numerous comebacks without really settling in during each of those. His Test debut was actually impressive but the struggles in the sub-continent thereafter saw Wood being dropped from the side. Over the years, he was recalled whenever the team had a crisis, more as a temporary solution.

Not that tall in frame, Wood loved to play the horizontal bat shots, especially to good effect in ODIs. His limited appearances for England proved to be a boon for Lancashire for whom he was an evergreen servant before shifting to Derbyshire in his last years of professional cricket, also captaining the latter. His part-time medium pace was underrated as he did have the ability to cut the ball both ways, fully capable of being a partnership breaker. Add to this livewire presence on the field where was unstoppable and he made a good package to have in the side.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan