AUS v IND 2020-21: Matthew Wade speaks on career turnaround after captaining Australia in 2nd T20I

The Tasmanian wicketkeeper batsman had been dropped from the national set-up during 2017-18 season.

Matthew Wade | Getty

Australian wicketkeeper batsman Matthew Wade talked about his career turnaround, saying it feels as if he "restarted" playing for his country only a few years back. 

Dropped from the national set-up across formats during the 2017-18 season, it seemed then that Wade has played his last international game for Australia. 

Read Also: Mark Waugh suggests ICC to appoint neutral doctors to assess concussions

However, the Tasmanian returned to domestic cricket with greater determination and brought himself back into selectors' reckoning. He rejuvenated himself with two fantastic Test hundreds on comeback in the 2019 Ashes in UK. 

"Yes, I'm 32, and I've been around a long time, but I see myself as a completely different player," he was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au"Matthew Wade, the guy that played as wicketkeeper-batter, is a completely different player than the one that's been playing the last three years. I almost feel like I restarted my career a couple of years ago, debuting at 30."

"No different to guys like 'Hadds' (Brad Haddin) and Mike Hussey, those kinds of guys. Age is always spoken about when you get to my age and that's the nature of the beast."

"Every game I play for Australia is one that I didn't think I'd get and whether that's my last game or whether I'll play another 50, that doesn't faze me too much, to be honest," Wade added.

On Sunday (December 6), Wade was trusted to lead Australia in the second T20I versus India in absence of injured regular skipper Aaron Finch. 

The left-hander struck a breezy half-century opening the batting and led an XI missing quite a few first-choice names very nicely. Even though the result didn't go the preferred way, Wade felt honoured to lead his country at the iconic SCG. 

"If you had have told me then (he would captain Australia), I certainly wouldn't have believed you, but this game moves fast and sometimes things happen that are quite unexpected and that's exactly what's happened in this scenario," he said. 

"There's plenty of guys that could have done it on the ground at the time which made it a lot easier for me. But yeah, I'm really proud and honoured to captain my country," Wade added.

(Inputs from ANI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 07 Dec, 2020

    Share Via