Matthew Wade on not being picked in Test squad: The Australian wicket-keeper batsman isn’t too happy with the Australian selectors.
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Australia batsman Matthew Wade is currently the highest run-scorer in this season of the Sheffield Season. In six matches, he has scored 571 runs at an average of 63.44 and a strike rate of 53.71. Having scored a century and five half-centuries in 12 innings, Wade has been among the runs every second innings.
In seven matches of the ongoing Big Bash League, Wade has scored 231 runs at an average of 33 and a strike rate of 133.52, making him the current fifth-highest run-scorer in the tournament.
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Despite all of this, Wade hasn’t found a place in the Test team in times when Australia are struggling with the bat. Earlier, national selector Trevor Horns had laid emphasis on Wade batting higher for Tasmania in a bid to earn a national recall.
However, the 31-year old southpaw considered the snub to be ‘disappointing’ not making ‘lot of sense’. “It’s disappointing for me. It seems the criteria when Justin [Langer] took over was weight of runs, hundreds. I feel like I’m ticking all those boxes and the reasons I’m not getting picked is I’m not batting in the top four. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense,” Wade was quoted as saying by SEN Radio.
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Clearly sounding unhappy, Wade took the names of other batsmen who bat at different positions for Australia and their state teams. Talking of Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb, Wade said, “He [Hohns] voiced his opinion about me batting in the top four, I obviously raised that Shaun Marsh bats five for Western Australia.
“I think you probably saw that with Peter Handscomb in the last Test. He batted No.6 but he is batting way out of position. He has never really batted too much with the tail in that position. So, yeah, I raised all those points.”
Not wanting to shuffle Tasmania’s batting order to promote himself, Wade is confused regarding not keeping wickets and playing as a specialist batsman for Tasmania. Having said that, he is also aware about the aftermaths is that decision falls flat in terms of the number of runs he is scoring.
“That puts me in a position that’s quite tough because I don’t want to be shuffling players around [in the Tasmania order]. I feel like if I give up the gloves completely, and go bat at four, and it doesn’t pan out as well, I feel like the next thing I’ll be hearing is I can’t be picked as the back-up keeper because I’m not keeping.
“It’s a tough situation to be in, I’m not really sure what we’re going to do. I’m not going to do it just for my own good.
“I’ll sit down with Griff [Tasmania coach Adam Griffiths], I’ve already had a conversation with him, and we will work out what’s best for Tasmania winning games and if that’s me batting No.5, if that’s me batting No.7, I don’t really care, I’ll go wherever I have to go,” Wade added.
The Mercury last week, Griffith disclosed that he has received no information from Cricket Australia about Wade’s batting position. “I’ve never been told by Cricket Australia that he has to bat in the top four.
“I had a conversation with Justin a couple of days ago where he did say one of the reasons we haven’t picked him is because he bats at No.6. But before that [during the Shield season] there wasn’t a directive from CA that he has to bat in the top four otherwise we can’t pick him,” Griffith said.
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