The five-match contest gets underway in Hyderabad on Thursday, with England looking to become the first visiting team to triumph on Indian soil since Sir Alastair Cook’s side claimed a 2-1 series win in 2012.
India have lost just three of their 46 matches in home conditions since and, despite missing talisman Virat Kohli for the first two Tests due to personal reasons, are firm favourites to inflict the Bazball era’s first series defeat.
"We've created history in the past, in Pakistan [where England won 3-0 in 2022],” a defiant Wood said on Tuesday. “It's a free hit, to be honest.
"Not many teams come here and win. If we give it a good go, we could go down in flames, but if we give it a go, it's no different to any other time.”
This week’s opener will be England’s first Test since last summer’s Ashes series, when Wood played a vital part in the fightback from 2-0 down to salvage a 2-2 draw.
In the interim, the 34-year-old was part of England’s dismal ODI World Cup defence in India last last year and says he is determined to put a poor campaign in which he took just six wickets in seven matches behind him.
"I was really upset with it,” he added. “For about a week once I got home I was thinking, 'Why did I do that?' or 'Why was this happening?', 'What did we do that for?’.
"It really hurt for a while but that's why there is a hunger to come back into this environment. I'm ready to try to prove that was just a one-off.”
Uncapped spinner Shoaib Bashir is still yet to arrive in India because of a visa delay, meaning one of Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed will likely partner Jack Leach as the second spinner, while Ben Foakes appears set for a recall behind the stumps, with Jonny Bairstow to play as a specialist batter.
