Matthew Wade is in jeopardy of losing his spot in the Australian side after another underwhelming performance against New Zealand.
Matthew Wade is in jeopardy of losing his spot in Australia’s T20 side following another underwhelming batting performance against New Zealand on Friday evening.
The wicketkeeper was dismissed for 14 at Wellington’s Sky Stadium, with a thick outside edge off Black Caps spinner Mitchell Santner flying directly to short third man.
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He has managed just 65 runs in four T20 innings this series, registering scores of 12, 24, 5 and 14.
Wade is temporarily opening the batting for Australia, with short-format powerhouse David Warner expected to occupy the spot at this year’s T20 World Cup in India.
The 33-year-old will then be competing with Alex Carey and young gun Josh Philippe for the wicketkeeping role in Australia’s T20 starting XI.
On Thursday afternoon, Carey slapped 99 in a Marsh Cup fixture at Adelaide Oval against a classy New South Wales bowling attack that featured Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon and Sean Abbott.
Meanwhile, Philippe was anointed Player of the Big Bash League this summer after pummelling 508 runs in 16 innings.
Unless Wade can muster a big score in the fifth match on Sunday afternoon, Australian selectors may look elsewhere for a T20 gloveman.
Worryingly, he averages just 13.78 in T20 international when not opening the batting — and there’s little chance he’ll be selected ahead of Warner and Australian captain Aaron Finch.
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Australian Test great Mark Waugh was surprised selectors persisted with the left-hander for the fourth T20, arguing he should have made way for Tasmanian teammate Ben McDermott.
“I thought they might of made a few changes,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket before the match.
“I personally would have opened with Josh Philippe and brought Ben McDermott in to bat No. 3 and Matthew Wade have a spell.
“They would have been tempted to bring one of the quicks in as well, but I suppose it’s hard to change a winning team.”
Wade was axed from Australia’s Test squad in January following a disappointing Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign, where he failed to pass 50 in four matches.
