Image Credit- BCCI
Matthew Wade, Australia’s temporary T20 captain, says
he wasn’t trying to take the lead during the tour to India. However, he is
eager to be a key member of the team for the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and
the US the following year, even if he isn’t sure if he will be the starting
wicketkeeper.
While some in the Australian cricket community were
taken aback by Wade’s selection as skipper of the team for the five-match
series against India right after the ODI World Cup, the decision had been
planned for some time as the selectors balanced the workloads of their more
experienced players.
Mitchell Marsh, who captained Australia’s Twenty20
international team to great effect during the recent series against South
Africa—the first after Aaron Finch’s retirement—replaces Australia’s current
permanent captain. In order to get ready for the summer home Tests, Marsh is
getting a break from the series against India. Pat Cummins, the captain of the
ODI and Test teams, along with Cameron Green, Mitchell Starc, and Josh
Hazlewood, will also not be on the tour.
Wade, who captained Australia in seven Twenty20
Internationals (T20Is) during Finch’s injury, including their final match of
the T20 World Cup against Afghanistan, was Finch’s longstanding vice captain.
However, the selectors did not initially pick him for the South Africa series
in order to give Josh Inglis some glove time and prepare Wade for his comeback
against India. Although he did not play, Wade did end up going South Africa to
cover for Glenn Maxwell due to an injury.
Speaking the day after he scored 105 runs in a fourth
innings chase of 432 to help Tasmania defeat Queensland in what he called his
best-ever Sheffield Shield victory, Wade admitted he had not expected to be
appointed Australia captain once more.
“I’ve never really strived so much for
leadership,” he said. “I think you kind of look after your own
backyard and those things kind of take care of themselves.
“With the relationships that I’ve got with
[coach] Andrew McDonald and obviously [head selector] George Bailey and all the
coaching staff around the Australian team and selectors, whatever situation I
was going to be going over to India in it would have been in a senior role
anyway.
“So it’s just a bit of a cherry on top after a
long career I suppose, to get another chance to go and captain in a country
that is so much fun to play, it’s going to be a hell of a time.”