Matthew Wade warned by the selectors ahead of the Ashes

Matthew Wade, the Australian wicketkeeper, has been warned by the selectors ahead of the Ashes at home in November. He has struggled to score runs off late which also resulted in him losing his spot in the third ODI of the 5-match series against India. Wade was also in line to be dropped after the loss of Australia in the first Test against Bangladesh. He has been told by the selectors to raise his game as he competes with Peter Handscomb for the position behind the wickets.

Handscomb was called as a cover for the injured Aaron Finch ahead of the ODI series, has performed exceedingly well in the limited opportunities presented to him. In Bengaluru, he played a crucial hand when India threatened to take the game away from Australia once again after a brilliant start at the top. However, Wade admitted that he is under pressure to score runs and need to raise his standards soon to stay in the team in the near future.

My form has nothing to do with sub-continental conditions

Matthew Wade was speaking to the reporters ahead of the fifth and final ODI against the Men in Blue in Nagpur. He agreed that his performance in the last few matches with the bat was not up to the mark. “I probably have not scored enough runs. My performance has been summed up by me getting dropped in the third game, so there is no point sitting up here and thinking about what has already happened, my form with the bat has not been good enough. The selectors have told me that I need to score runs if I need to be picked,” he said.

But he also cleared the air that his form had nothing to do with the conditions in the sub-continent and insisted on improving. “A lot has been made about me failing in Bangladesh and couple of times here but before also I played in India I was batting really well. I would have liked to score more runs in this series but that has not happened. If I go back to the way I was batting in India (during the Test series earlier this year) I played quite well. It is not panic stations yet and I know what I have to do,” he added.

However, he felt that as a specialist keeper he has done nothing wrong behind the stumps. “I thought I kept quite well in Bangladesh. I know there was lot of talk, especially during the first Test with the number of byes I conceded but if you look at their keeper and given the conditions, I thought we were quite similar. I felt, in the second Test especially, I took some good chances. I have been pretty good here. I felt I kept quite well. Selectors have told me there have been no concerns with my keeping, they just want me to score more runs,” Wade said of his wicketkeeping skills.

The visiting team is currently 1-3 down in the series and the left-hander feels that it is important to finish on a high and stated that a win on Sunday could do a world of good to their confidence. “We need to play well on the road in the ODI format so the final match is important to us. There has been plenty of talk about our record away from home, so it was nice to get that monkey off the back with a win in the last match (fourth ODI) that can hopefully get some momentum going forward. This is a new team and it will be nice to get some wins under our belt and get some continuity. It will be nice to play 5 or 6 or 7 matches with a similar looking team. Our players have not performed well enough, myself included. It will be nice to finish here with a win and then lead into the Australian summer,” he signed off.