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Tim Paine should be Australia’s number one gloveman. The reason? He is…
If it wasn’t for a meaningless demonstration T20 match a few years ago, in which Paine suffered a completely unnecessary injury that cost him his rightful second place in the pecking order behind Brad Haddin, he would be Australia’s number one.
Matthew Wade hit an outstanding century against Sri Lanka in the recent Sydney Test match – a real gutsy innings. He then however proceeded to fluff a number of regulation opportunities with the gloves, thereby continuing the form behind the wickets he had shown all summer.
Alarmingly, in some post match comments Wade himself was a little dismissive of one or two of these misses, as if he expects it to happen every now and then.
If I had the choice between a wicketkeeper who hits a century and drops three catches and a wicketkeeper who gets a duck and takes those three catches – give me the latter any day of the week.
It’s quite simple; the wicketkeeper’s job is to keep wickets. If he is doing a good job, he is barely noticed, and regulation opportunities should never be noticed.
We tend to notice Wade. Think about it…
If it were not for Adam Gilchrist, Wade would never have even come into consideration. ‘Gilly’ managed to turn the position of wicketkeeper into wicketkeeper/batsman – something England has been attempting to do for generations (think Alec Stewart, Geraint Jones and Matthew Prior).
Australia, however, had always employed the best ‘keeper. Rod Marsh and Ian Healy didn’t even learn how to bat until they were in the national team!
Wade is a terrific batsman and he has every right to pursue selection in the team based on that. There is always room in the Australian set-up for a fighter such as Wade – however a ‘fighter’ with the gloves is not always as beneficial as it is with the bat.
Catching is a natural instinct – the harder one tries, or indeed ‘fights’, the harder it is.
So far we have failed to mention Paine’s batting. It is all class. He is a natural batsman (as well as ‘keeper), so the team would not lose anything in this department if he were to replace Wade – rather, it would only provide the team with the best pair of hands in the land.
Again, there is still a role for the less natural, more fighter-like Wade in the team for his hitting.
With the Ashes looming, we want our batsmen to fight like never before but we also want our man behind the stumps to go unnoticed.
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