Matthew Wade is confident of securing a middle or lower-order position in Australia’s batting line up for the ICC T20 World Cup but believes he’s also ready to bat in the top order if required.
Wade opened the batting for Australia in the most recent white-ball tours of the Caribbean and Bangladesh but with the return of Aaron Finch, who has recovered from knee surgery, and David Warner, who opted out of those series, the Victorian expects to come in at the pointy end of Australia’s innings, although he hasn’t been told directly by selectors where he fits into the side.
“Just reading between the lines with the way that Mitch [Marsh] played last series then he'll probably slot in at the top of the order,” said Wade, speaking from Dubai. “I suppose my role at the top of the order, maybe if we want to go a little bit harder and they want a left hander, maybe I’ll go in then.
“But apart from that I would see myself settling towards the middle to lower order so haven't had extensive conversations with Finch, JL, Bails [Chair of selectors, George Bailey] about this yet but I've been around long enough to know where I'll probably sit within the team and that's what my training has been tailored towards, getting used to that lower order.”
Wade’s record batting down the order for Australia over the past ten years has brought modest returns.
In 26 innings batting in positions 4 to 7, Wade has averaged 12.20 and in 15 innings played in Asia his average drops to 9.00.
Josh Inglis, whose BBL form for the Perth Scorchers earned him a call-up into the World Cup squad, is another contender for the wicketkeeper-batter role.
The highly-regarded Inglis has batted in both the top and middle order for the Scorchers and averages 32.90 in T20 cricket
Wade remains confident he will hold his place as wicketkeeper-batter and he doesn’t believe selectors will swap between the pair once the tournament starts, although Inglis bats right-handed and Wade is a left-hander, giving selectors a point of difference as they look to specific match-ups.
“They'll make a decision at the start of the tournament and that player will play the tournament I would have thought,” Wade said. “I played the last series and I'm confident that I'll play this series.
"We'll wait and see but no, I don't think it'll be a horses for courses type thing.”
Along with other squad members not with IPL franchises Wade will spend the next six days in hard quarantine in their Dubai hotel rooms, giving him plenty of time to contemplate a ‘finisher’ role in the tournament.
“My role at the top of the order was to go out there and try and get off to a flyer and make it a bit easier for the guys at the back end, whether we're setting or chasing runs,” Wade said. “So in this scenario, depending on what the pitches are doing, then you're dictated on how you have to play but at the lower end of the order you're looking at 10 or 12 balls hopefully at a maximum, if you’ve batted really well, so it's how you're going to try and cash in on those and, as I said, I've got a lap in my game, and I got that when I was batting down the bottom order.
“I'm not going to put any preconceived ideas in my head about what I need to go out and do in the middle order and, whatever scenario comes my way, I'm confident that I can find a way to do it.
“But we saw in the West Indies and in Bangladesh that a lot of the time at the moment on these pitches it's not go out there and swing as hard as you can from ball one, you’ve got to find a way to, if you can strike, if the pitches deteriorate, if you’re striking over a hundred towards the back end and you can find those gaps to run your twos and find a boundary here and there, then that's really really good going at the back end of an innings here.”
Wade admitted the Australian players don’t know if they will be playing on pitches that are fresh or currently being used in the IPL, a concern raised by Finch before the squad left Australia.
But there will be plenty of information sharing over the next week, with players taking part in group chats while confined to their rooms.
The players are also participating in half-hour group exercise sessions, some of which are taking place on balconies to allow for acclimatisation to the Dubai heat.
It’s far removed from the usual preparation for a World Cup, particularly when a significant portion of the squad has played very little cricket in any format over the past six months.
“It shows how fickle at times I suppose we were back before COVID, when we needed this preparation and we needed that preparation,” said Wade. “The last two years has probably showed us that, mentally, if you can find a way to push through these challenges and convince yourself that you're ready to go, then you'll be okay.
“All these scenarios are challenging but as a team, the advantage is that we've got a really nice lead-in, plenty of time over here to get used to the conditions and then we'll hit the ground running by game one."
