Matthew Wade brings back the Ashes, but says credit should go to his family at home

He left home as a Test hopeful and returns with two Test centuries after playing a crucial role in helping retain the Ashes, and Matthew Wade credits one thing for his success.

Australian Test cricket player Matthew Wade greeted by his wife Julia and daughters Goldie, three months, and Winter, 3, after returning from the Ashes tour. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

MATTHEW Wade returned home having helped Australia retain the Ashes — but he said his family at home deserve credit for bringing world cricket’s most famous prize back.

The Tasmanian skipper left for England for the Australia A tour just four days after his wife Julia gave birth to their second daughter, Goldie, with no guarantees of a Test call up.

Instead he returns as only one of two Australians to score hundreds during the Ashes and as part of the first team to retain the Ashes in England since 2001.

WADE EYEING OFF MORE TEST TONS

But Wade said the sacrifices were worth it.

“When little Goldie was screaming about half an hour before you get on the plane I was thinking ‘am I doing the right thing?’” Wade said.

“But now, absolutely.

“The work that Julia and my whole family — my side of the family and Julia’s side of the family — have done to me to enable me to be able to go over and do what I did for the Ashes certainly a little bit of that urn goes to them.”

But there is not much rest for Wade who, after a week off, will be back with the Tigers for their third one-day game on September 29 in Adelaide – and hopefully more Test cricket this summer.