Steve Smith hints at Wade's axing for Chittagong Test

Australia captain Steve Smith has said that the wicketkeeper Matthew Wade could be axed from the side for the second Test against Bangladesh. Australia haven’t named their playing eleven yet against their tradition of announcing the squad 24 hours before the game. The second Test match is set to start from Monday in Chittagong.

Australia is behind in the series0-1 against the hosts as they lost the first Test by 20 runs in Dhaka. The wicketkeeper-batsman Wade has been struggling since the India tour and has not justified his selection. He is not able to contribute with the bat at all which exposes the tail very quickly.

Peter Handscomb could keep

Smith believed that Wade has not done enough to keep him in the side and the gloves could be throw to the middle order batsman Peter Handscomb. “It certainly would be a tough call (on Wade). I think when we are looking at Matty we just need a little bit more from him with the bat in particular,” Smith told reporters.

He also said that the left-hander knows that he is struggling and has had conversations with him regarding that before. He was confident that Handscomb would do well behind the stumps if handed over the responsibility.

“And he knows this, he knows that he has to do a little bit better with the bat. And he’s had those conversations. So it’ll just depend which way we want to go on the balance of the team as well. (Handscomb) certainly has kept and we’ve seen him keep before and he’s done a good job, so, if we go that way we are confident that he will do a good job,” the skipper added.

Australian media has already slammed their cricketers after suffering the first ever Test defeat to Bangladesh. The Aussies are known to come back strong and it would be interesting to see their response in the final Test.