‘Sticky situation’: Matt Wade’s wife took one for the Australian Ashes team
Two years after he was banished by national selectors, Matthew Wade is back in an Australian squad and credit goes to the unlikely duo of England captain Joe Root and Wade’s uncompromising wife.
The secret to Matthew Wade’s stunning Australian resurrection can be revealed.
It’s all been down to his special bat, and his even more special wife.
Two years after he was banished to international purgatory, the 31-year-old is not just in the Ashes squad but fully in line to be part of the top six when the series begins at Birmingham on August 1.
His case was compelling with runs galore in domestic cricket, all pummeled with a bat-type he borrowed from English captain Joe Root.
But the bigger factor was the urgings of his wife, Julie, who demanded he take up an offer to be part of the Australia A tour, a tour Wade thought he shouldn’t have had to go on.
His stubborn musings to a heavily pregnant Mrs Wade earlier this year, that his Sheffield Shield run haul of more than 1000 should have been enough for selection, fell on deaf ears.
And even though both Wades knew touring England would come at a cost of family time with his newborn daughter, Goldie, who came just before he left, the Tasmanian got on the plane to England, scored three hundreds, and now is on the verge of wearing his baggy green cap again.
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“I certainly wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my wife throwing me on the plane to be honest, I was probably going to pass on the Australia A tour because we were going to have the baby,” Wade said in the lobby of the team’s Southampton hotel just after his confirmation in the 17-man squad.
“I felt like I’d put a lot of runs on the board already, that if that wasn’t enough I was comfortable with that. Family comes first for me obviously and all of the cricketers here.
“It was a sticky situation, I probably didn’t think I’d get picked in the Australia A tour, I thought they probably knew what I could deliver and they’d seen enough of me, so when that came up it was a little bit from left field.
“But we sorted through it and went to Melbourne and had little Goldie and jumped on a plane four days later and here I am.”
When he announced the squad, selection chief Trevor Hohns constantly referred to Wade’s weight of runs, that he “banged the door down” for national selection.
Dropping the wicket keeping gloves was one reason for the flow, in both red and white ball games.
But Wade also revealed he had made a big change to his key weapon too; a special bat with a short blade, and long handle, which helped him plunder runs against white and red balls.
Along with his Shield haul, Wade blasted another 592 in the Big Bash, plus three hundreds for Australia A in England wielding his adapted willows.
“I’ve moved to that a couple of years ago. Joe Root went from GM to New Balance, he used a short blade, long handle. I saw a couple of his bats, trialled them, liked them, and it went from there,” Wade said.
“It wasn’t a real big thing for me, it just felt comfortable in my hand. I feel like I can swing it better in T20 for sure, it’s a shorter, more compact blade, and long handle, it just suits the way I can go out and swing it.”
That’s how he’ll bat if given the chance to play in the first Test, or any of the Ashes series too, without any doubt about his game, or fear of failure.
It’s a batting state of mind he developed with Tasmanian guru Jeff Vaughan.
“He’s one of the best that I’ve ever worked with. It’s probably the ability to let players make their own mistakes is what first comes to mind,” he said.
“A lot of coaches can push you in the direction they think is best for you. He has an amazing ability to be able to back the way you want to play.
“But he doesn’t push you in a certain direction, backs you as a player more than a lot of coaches I’ve ever had and I think that gives you confidence when you walk to the middle.”
Wade could walk to the middle at Edgbaston, or not. He would rather it, of course.
But having made it back this far, at his age, with a wife and now two kids in his life, Wade is a happy man.
“I haven’t got any expectations,” he said.
“Fingers crossed I get an opportunity. I’m at an age now where I’m happy to be here, and happy to run drinks if that’s what it takes.
“But I’d like to play if I could.”
Originally published as ‘Sticky situation’: Matt Wade’s wife took one for the Australian Ashes team
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