Ian Healy picks Australia’s Ashes wicketkeeper

AUSSIE legend Ian Healy has urged Australia to eat humble pie in a move which could make or break the home side’s Ashes.

Time to go: Matt.

FORMER Aussie wicketkeeper Ian Healy says Matthew Wade’s time as Australia’s first-pick gloveman is coming to an end as the countdown to a must-win Ashes series enters its final month.

Wade’s disappointing return to the national side after Peter Nevill was dropped has painted the 29-year-old into a corner.

Despite having the backing of former Test captain Allan Border, who picked Wade in his first XI for the Gabba, the Tasmanian wicketkeeper has a tough task convincing selectors for an Ashes return.

“I sense they’ll go to Peter Nevill,” Healy told SEN Breakfast on Monday morning.

“I hope when they judge it, they do it on wicketkeeping ability and handy runs, rather than he who makes the most runs and not really look at their glovework.”

In a cricket climate dominated by big hitting and bigger scores, wicketkeepers are being heavily judged by the amount of runs they make. Nevill’s return to state cricket has seen the 32-year-old’s batting credentials soar — and Healy says its about time selectors threw him back into the mix, even if it means eating some humble pie.

“To do that (pick Nevill) they are going to have to admit a mistake a year ago, and that’s an agenda,” he said.

“I think Peter Nevill has a greater grasp on the technical aspects of wicketkeeping. For some reason he got dropped a year ago and now Matthew Wade is on the improve having had a better Test in Bangladesh, but he’s still not batting the way he can.”

Matthew Wade might be sitting this Ashes series out.

Healy said the major dilemma in the Wade-Nevill selection debate lay in Australia’s tendency to immediately drop players after a run of bad form.

“He (Wade) is improving and we’re going to drop him,” he said. “That’s the dilemma and the agenda that you need to be aware of with what is going on in there — We’ve got to get this keeping position down pat.”

The 53-year-old 119 Test veteran had a word of advice to Nevill ahead of what could be his first Test match in over a year.

“He has fallen into a tough patch — which a lot of his team have,” he said. “He’s got to stay out of that. A wicketkeeper in a struggling team has got to get above it and help out,” he said.

He also took aim at the myth surrounding Wade’s presence behind the stumps.

“You can’t get significant presence without performance,” he said.

“You need to perform, the opposition will start to fear you and you’ll be confident enough to share some energy with your other teammates and really put into a team effort.”