Mark Wood has warned England must work hard to ensure Jofra Archer does not become cricket's answer to Faustino Asprilla as a much-discussed World Cup selection edges near.
England will name a provisional 15-man squad for the tournament at Lord's on Wednesday, alongside an expanded panel of 17 for the preceding series against Pakistan, and the status of the uncapped and newly-available Archer is the issue on everybody's lips.
The 24-year-old Barbadian, who recently qualified on residency grounds and is currently playing in the Indian Premier League alongside Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler at Rajasthan Royals, is certain to be in at least one of those as he looks to gatecrash the competition at the eleventh hour.
Wood is happy not to have a say on the final decisions, preferring to leave that at national selector Ed Smith's door, but he does believe it would cause less upheaval to audition him against Pakistan then draft him in if performances dictate.
"I wouldn't want to be a selector because it's a hard choice, but the saving grace is that they can pick a squad and add someone in later," he said.
"That would probably be easier rather than adding Jofra in to the original squad and leaving someone out. Because if you look at Jofra against Pakistan and he doesn't do as well as you think, and then you add someone back in that you have left out, I don't know if that way round looks better."
