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Australian cricket legend Mark Taylor believes Matthew Wade, regardless of his fate in his second round at The Gabba, deserves to keep his place in the Test Series against South Africa.
But the former captain says the Tasmanian needs to change his mindset to make sure his promising debut fits into regular centuries.
Speculation around Wade’s place in the Australian XI continues to mount after the left-hander was dismissed for 45 on the opening day of the fourth Test, which made his streak an average of just 24.71 after his seven innings.
The fact that he once again offered India his wicket with a reckless shot, attempting to shoot an overfilled ball and skiing it to Shardul Thakur at the Thangarasu Natarajan bowling alley, adds even more fuel to the doubt surrounding his credentials of selection.
But Taylor said today’s heats and lack of competition for mid-level positions means Wade is set to stay on the squad for the three-test Australian tour of South Africa in February and March.
“Without a doubt (he did enough to keep his place). Yes, he did,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports.
“Once again he showed he can play. He gets to 3-87 and all of a sudden Australia is in trouble and he’s playing really well. He continued the game. He turned the game in favor of Australia.with (Marnus) Labuschagne.
“Unfortunately for Matty, he left the door open for speculation again as he was only 45. He’s going to kick himself tonight. That 45 could easily have been 75 tonight. he is 75 or 80 years old, he does not go out and puts on a hundred tomorrow, the speculations have disappeared, what he has done is keep the door open to new speculations.
“But you will only choose someone else for the South Africa tour if they want to do a better job – and I don’t see that person there.”
Wade recorded scores of eight, 33, 30, 40, 13, four and 45 in this series.
One thing that probably works in his favor amid the debate surrounding his place in the camp is the fact that he went from middle range to top order for the first two tests in order to fill the void left by David Warner and Will Pucovski.
When the two opening batsmen returned for the SCG test, Wade slipped down the order and the out of form Travis Head was sent off to the side.
And he came off impulsively when he loaded up the SCG wicket and skied a delivery from Jadeja to Jasprit Bumrah after the ball caught the leading edge, before his wild dismissal to The Gabba followed.
Taylor said Wade fell into the trap of being too hungry for borders.
“He can play, there’s no doubt about it. He can play in the top six for Australia. But the only problem he has is that he tends to think four or nothing too many,” he said. Taylor said.
“Today was a chance to accumulate points. He had made the yards difficult.
“There have been a couple of times today that he has kicked the ball for two or three. If he can do more of that and keep the scoreboard running, then when he feels he needs to hit a strike limit, he “I’ll be right. Take one or a three and go down to the other end.
“Sometimes he tends to focus only on reaching the limits and that’s when he gets in trouble and plays a rash shot.”
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