Sam Wood, a left-handed batsman who bowls right-arm off-spin, was called up for his first-class debut as a nominated replacement when Samit Patel was summoned to England duty after three days of a Championship match against Lancashire at Trent Bridge in June 2011. Patel had already batted twice and Wood's only active involvement other than fielding was to bowl four wicketless overs in Lancashire's second innings. Happily, in his second first-class appearance, some 15 months later, he was able to make more of an impression, scoring 45 in Notts' first innings against Surrey at The Oval and taking 3 for 64 in the home side's second innings after dismissing Jason Roy for his maiden first-class wicket.

In other first-team experience, he teamed up with skipper Chris Read in scoring 28 from two overs to steer Notts into the final of the Emirates Airlines Twenty20 competition in Dubai in 2011 and subsequently made three appearances in the CB40 competition, picking up his first wickets in another match against Lancashire, when he dismissed Paul Horton and Farveez Maharoof.

Wood made scores of 130 and 95 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in his second Youth Test appearance in January 2011 and represented England in the Under-19 World Cup in Australia in 2012, the highlight of which was his 104 off 111 balls -- including seven sixes -- as England beat West Indies in the play-off for fifth place.

His 2013 season began in Nottinghamshire's second XI but he took a hat-trick against Gloucestershire at Thornbury as Notts won easily.
ESPNcricinfo staff