Not Steve Smith or David Warner, This Surprise Pick Can Become Australia’s New T20 Captain

Wade's name has cropped up at a time when another seasoned cricketer, David Warner is being talked about as someone who can fill up the captaincy slot in the Australian One-day International side left vacant by Finch's recent retirement.

New Delhi: Australian captain Aaron Finch has not been at his best in terms of runs for a long time. Although, current world T20 champions Australia have done considerably well in T20 format but Finch’s lack of runs and fitness issues have been a matter of concern among cricket fans and experts. A report in Sydney Morning Herald, has suggested that Finch can be replaced with wicketkeeper batter Matthew Wade as captain for the T20 World Cup.

Wade’s name has cropped up at a time when another seasoned cricketer, David Warner is being talked about as someone who can fill up the captaincy slot in the Australian One-day International side left vacant by Finch’s recent retirement.

However, Wade, who has made the No. 7 T20 spot his own, will also be a leading candidate for white-ball captaincy should Cricket Australia look for an alternative to Finch post the T20 World Cup in October-November, the report added.

“Prior to the 2018 cultural review of Australian cricket, Wade had been selected on at least one occasion for his ‘mongrel’ and verbals from behind the stumps, replacing Peter Nevill in the Test team in November 2016. It was a move that left then-selector Greg Chappell aghast,” the report said.

“I stated, ‘that’s never been a criteria for picking a Test team that I have ever heard of, and we shouldn’t be starting now,” Chappell wrote in his book, Not Out. “As the idea developed in the meeting I just shook my head, saying ‘no, we cannot go down this path’.”

Wade, who was denied a CA contract earlier this year, will only get around AUD350,000 for the 12 T20Is he has played, including the recently-concluded series against India, the report added.

On the upcoming T20 World Cup at home, Wade said following the 1-2 loss in the three-match series against India that his side is very positive going into the showpiece event, given that the team is batting really deep.

Inputs from IANS