'It doesn't take much to fire up Matthew Wade' - Adam Zampa on wicketkeeper's heated reaction after being denied dead ball in T20 WC

Adam Zampa described Matthew Wade as 'fiery and super competitive' after the wicketkeeper-batter was involved in a heated argument with umpire Nitin Menon during the Australia versus England clash in the T20 World Cup 2024 on Saturday, June 8, in Barbados.

The incident happened in the 18th over of Australia's innings. After hitting a boundary off the second ball, Wade seemed like he wanted to pull out of the following delivery bowled by Adil Rashid but ended up blocking it reluctantly. Umpire Nitin Menon deemed it to be a non-dead ball and it turned out to be a massive shocker for Wade. The southpaw engaged in a war of words but the Indian umpire didn't budge.

England captain Jos Buttler spoke about the umpire's viewpoint on the incident during the post-match press conference.

"I think he pulled away and then played it, so I think the umpire was like, 'Well, you sort of played it', but he said he pulled away. And to be honest, I was thinking about many other things at that point. Whether I should have said, 'I don't know if he pulled away and let's just carry on'. But the umpire seemed to be like, 'Well, because he played it, it's a dot ball'. I can't speak for him, whether he looked up late, but he seemed ready and then pulled out very late and I think that's what the umpire was saying," Buttler said.

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2024: AUS vs ENG, Match 17 Highlights: Unmissable video recap, turning points, match analysis, stats, and more

Wade's teammate, Zampa, said that it doesn't take much to fire up the Hobart-born. The star leg-spinner explained how Wade's competitiveness helps the team.

 "I think he felt like that it was the same basically as letting it hit him in the leg on a dead ball. But it doesn't take much to fire Wadey up," Zampa said as quoted by India Today.

"Wadey is a fiery guy, super competitive - and something ticked him over a little bit today and that's what we love about Wadey. I think after the sixth or seventh over mark he came up to me and said, 'Let's not sit back here, let's go. We can't wait for them to make the mistake because they're not going to'. Basically, stay in the contest. That's the beautiful thing about Wadey, having him behind the stumps - so competitive, you hear his voice and that makes a huge difference. If you've got a wicketkeeper who is quiet, whose body language is the opposite of someone like Wadey, you can feel that as well," he added.

 After the game, Travis Head said that Wade had heard music continue to play over the loudspeakers as Rashid stepped up to bowl.

"It's very rare for him to block the next one, especially Wadey. I think he didn't really have intention [to face the ball] - it followed him, he blocked it, Wadey just asked the question. Wadey obviously felt it went one way and Jos at the time felt it went the other," Head stated.

Defending champions in a spot of bother after loss to arch-rivals

England suffered a 36-run defeat on Saturday as they were restricted to 165/6 in pursuit of a 202-run target. Zampa was adjudged Player of the Match for his excellent spell of 2/28 in his four overs. This defeat has made things slightly tricky for defending champions England.

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2024: AUS vs ENG - Who said What?

The Three Lions started their campaign with a game against Scotland. However, the match was called off after only 10 overs were bowled. After the defeat to Australia, Buttler and Co. have just one point from two games. They have two important matches left against Namibia and Oman and would want to bag full points from them and secure their place in the Super Eight stage.