Speaking on the Cricket Badger Podcast, Mark Wood and Keaton Jennings recalled an incident from England Lions’ tour to Australia in 2017/18 when the former locked the latter in a hotel room bathroom.
Up until the end of the 2017 season, the pair had been teammates at Durham, and, according to Jennings, the practical joke played by Wood only endeared him more to the opener.
“He piled up my bags and a bunch of pillows outside my shower door, and it just sums him up beautifully,” he said. “He’s a child at heart but he cares so much about the people around him.”
From how Wood describes the hi-jinks, Jennings didn’t feel quite so positively at the time.
“I wouldn’t say [my pranks] are particularly that special, I just do daft stuff,” he said. “The one that Keaton’s on about was in a hotel room in Australia. You just see an opportunity and you’ve got to go for it haven’t you? I piled all his bags and all his clothes out, and he found it funny at first and then he was like, ‘C’mon, get them down.’
“But he has to work it out for himself doesn’t he? It’s part of problem solving. If he’s going to open the batting for England, he’s got to solve these problems himself. I think he smashed down half his kitbag but he got out in the end. He was looking real gaunt and hadn’t had anything to eat, but he was alright!”