Could prolific NSW opener Ryan Carters have set an example to be followed by his former Victorian teammate Matthew Wade?
Carters moved to NSW in the last off-season in an effort to get greater opportunities. The young wicketkeeper had spent several seasons on the fringe of the Victorian Shield side, making occasional appearances, averaging mid-20s with the bat.
In the course of moving states he had to ditch the gloves, due to Peter Nevill being entrenched as NSW ‘keeper, and reinvent himself as a specialist batsman. The results were spectacular. Across nine first-class matches this summer he churned out 922 runs at an average of 58. He is now a serious contender to succeed Test opener Chris Rogers when he retires.
Should Wade follow a similar path and shed the gloves to try to exploit his considerable gifts with the blade? At just 26 years old, he has a huge amount of cricket ahead of him. Brad Haddin may be on the cusp of retirement but competition to replace him will be fierce.
21-year-old Western Australia gloveman Sam Whiteman has just completed an extraordinary Shield season. Peter Nevill continues to impress behind the stumps and with the bat for NSW. Tasmanian veteran Tim Paine has long been a darling of the national selectors. Queensland’s Chris Hartley is highly regarded by Australian coach, and former Bulls’ mentor, Darren Lehmann.
That is a lot of talent pushing to fill just one spot. Meanwhile, batting positions have continually been opening up in the Australian top six.
Of the current batting line-up, David Warner and Steve Smith are the only players you could predict with confidence will still be there in two to three years’ time.
Wade may have a better chance of getting back into the Test side via the top six. It was his glovework, not his batting, which saw him dumped for Haddin prior to the Ashes in England. His shoddy work behind the stumps had been laid bare during the disastrous 4-0 whitewash against India early last year. Over the duration of his 12 Tests, Wade’s ‘keeping actually appeared to worsen.
It is a long, long way short of what is required at Test level, particularly in a team ranked second in the world and making a bull run for the top spot. The Victorian’s efforts standing up to the spinners were particularly poor. It is a running joke among Australian fans to recalculate Nathan Lyon’s Test average by taking into account all the chances missed off him by Wade.
But Wade did show tremendous promise with the bat. His return of 623 runs at 35, including two centuries, was very solid. Prior to that ill-fated tour of India, on which every Australian batsman floundered bar Michael Clarke and Smith, he had averaged 43 in his first nine Tests.
Notably, his two hundreds were both made in his side’s first innings and under pressure. In his third Test, against the West Indies in Dominica, he came to the crease with the Aussies in a crisis at 5-157 (and soon after 7-169).
Wade batted intelligently with the tail. He exercised extreme caution to halt the Windies’ momentum, making just 24 from his first 83 balls as he got himself well set. The left-hander then unleashed, carving 82 from his following 63 balls to help Australia set a good first-innings total of 328. They went on to win a tight contest by 75 runs. Wade’s ton was the difference.
Then, the next Australian summer, he made another pivotal century, this time against Sri Lanka at the SCG. In that Test, Wade batted at six as the Aussies experimented with using Mitchell Johnson as an all-rounder.
The match was in the balance, with Australia at 5-271 in their first dig, still trailing Sri Lanka by 23. By the time Wade was finished, Australia were overwhelming favourites to triumph, having secured a lead of 138.
Wade’s first-class record is 3864 runs at 39 with seven tons. That is as good as those boasted by the likes of Alex Doolan, Shaun Marsh and George Bailey, all of whom have played as specialist batsmen in the Test side recently.
He is a fine player of pace bowling and is equally strong off the front or back foot. His handling of spin can improve, but he is not alone there among Australian batsmen. The unknown is how Wade’s batting would develop were he to be freed of the physical and mental burden of ‘keeping.
Would his batting returns improve significantly as they did for Carters and for Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara, who has averaged 70 in the Tests in which he hasn’t had to keep?
Who knows? But, for Wade, it may be a risk worth taking.
Zak Pollak
Guest
Pete Handscomb; a great young keeper as well as batsmen who had experience in the shield team last season
Deep Thinker
Guest
''Catch the ball regularly for a start' - ridiculous! Yep - I will claim it as Healy bias. I could easily copy and paste your entire post word-for-word and put Hartley's name to it. Doesn't prove a thing. In fact, I'll do that now: This is what I say about Hartley - Hartley is mediocre at best to pace, and utterly clueless to spin. He does seem to have reduced his habit of having his fingers pointing to point and snatching at everything when up to the stumps though. It was like even the most innocuous delivery from a spinner took him by complete surprise. That same movement happens to other keepers occasionally when a ball unexpectedly jumps or grips. With Hartley it seemed to happen twice an over on nude balls. Its better now, bu he is still not a competent gloveman by any stretch. I;'ll also say this Hartley is by far the worst I have seen at FC level or above with the gloves (other than those who filled in for injured keepers or whatever, and maybe Kamran Akmal on a suspicious day). There - I said it, but I may be exaggerating.
Nudge
Guest
It's not because of Healy DT, it's because of the 15 chances he missed in his last 10 tests
Timmuh
Roar Guru
What do Whiteman and Nevill do better? Catch the ball regularly for a start. Wade is mediocre at best to pace, and utterly clueless to spin. He does seem to have reduced his habit of having his fingers pointing to point and snatching at everything when up to the stumps though. It was like even the most innocuous delivery from a spinner took him by complete surprise. That same movement happens to other keepers occasionally when a ball unexpectedly jumps or grips. With Wade it seemed to happen twice an over on nude balls. Its better now, bu he is still not a competent gloveman by any stretch. I thought he did improve in India compared to his keeping at home, but he was still by far the worst I have seen at FC level or above with the gloves (other than those who filled in for injured keepers or whatever, and maybe Kamran Akmal on a suspicious day). Hartley actually is the best keeper in Australia, according to far better judges than myself. You can claim Healy-bias if you like, but in this case the opinion is probably a correct one. Whiteman seems neat enough when I've seen him, but I wouldn't be putting him ahead of Harley just yet. Ahead of Paine, certainly, but Paine hasn't been anything flash since his injuries.
Deep Thinker
Guest
The reason everyone is canning his keeping is because Ian Healy criticised his keeping during a Channel 9 test match out of nowhere because he wanted his mate Chris Hartley to be picked. If Paine was in the team, Healy would say Chris Hartley should be picked. Putting Healy's bias to one side, I don't think Wade is as bad as everyone makes him out to be. Sure, there's room for improvement. But lets be honest, how many of you guys have studied hours of video tape and can, hand on heart, say that Whiteman or Neville are better keepers than Wade? If so, what do they do better? I bet none of you know for sure - but hey... they have to be better than Wade, right? I think the 'giving up the gloves' argument for the sake of it is silly. Take two examples. (1) AB Devilliers became a makeshift gloveman and has clearly been the best batsman (let alone keeper batsman) in the last 5 years. (2) Adam Gilchrist was a decent batsman who took up keeping and only then excelled in batting, so much so, that he made Richie Benaud's team of the century (for what that's worth). The fact is, the keeper's spot is wide open because nobody is really demanding selection. Whiteman has only had one season - lets not get carried away.
Hal
Guest
Both Whiteman and Neville being selected above Paine, Wade and Hartley for the Aus A Tour says a lot. I still think Whiteman needs another season or two, and a couple of centuries, before he can legitimately claim a spot. I think Neville should be next in line with his long term consistency for NSW, but selectors LOVE throwing a young kid in before he's ready (i.e. Agar, Smith, Hughes). Also disappointed Ryan Carters wasn't selected for the Aus A squad, had a better season than ferguson and mitch marsh.
Nudge
Guest
Yeah I reckon Paine is buggered as well. I'm thinking Whiteman as well, but if they feel that he needs another year in the shield ( whenever that may be) Neville's numbers are very impressive and I've heard he's very good with the gloves
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Tim Paine has only scored one ton in first-class cricket and that was 9 years ago. He'll probably be 31 by the time Haddin retires so I would look at Whiteman instead.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
I think he should quit keeping. He is a handy batsmen that could become very good if he focused solely on that. He is not a great keeper, focus on batting.
Magic
Guest
I think Paine was always to be the incumbent if Wades not in the picture. Would only be 30 if Haddin calls it after the WC/Ashes and seems to be liked by the public and more importantly the NSPs second favourite golden child (after SOS, of course). It takes years to get a proper grip on being behind the stumps, people should look at Wade like they did Steve Smith - thrown in the deep end too early. Nevill did tour the West Indies last year though...
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
That is a good point Brian, I suppose it depends how highly Wade values a Test spot.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Hopefully Haddin can stay in decent touch through to the next Ashes but I can't see him going longer than that.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Whiteman may have leapt to the top of the queue after his brilliant Shield season. The selectors clearly like Wade though.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Haha fair point Matt he was arguably more of a backstop than a keeper.
Steele
Guest
Good article, I believe he has the talent to be a pretty handy middle order batsmen. As you point out his record is as good as many other specialists.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Handscomb is a very handy 'keeper-batsman so he'd be a reasonable replacement if Wade made that move.
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
Yes. For the benefit of the Australian spectators and himself.
Nudge
Guest
That's a very good point Brian
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
It's amazing that his poor keeping just seems to be getting worse, not better. Either he simply doesn't have the ability to be a decent keeper or he just doesn't put in the amount of work required to be a top level keeper. Because being a top level keeper involves a hell of a lot of hard work on the keeping. But that being said, I think he may have also missed the boat on the possibility of making the test team purely as a batsman. Of course, there is always the possibility that if he gives up the gloves his batting could go through the roof, but there are more and more young batsmen coming through that maybe over the last couple of years if he had given up the gloves and improved his batting a bit as a result he might have had a shot, but over the next 12-18 months I think the competition for those spots is going to seriously heat up even more, and I don't know that he's up for it.
Brian
Guest
Ronan I guess the problem with your proposition from Wade's point of view is that as a career cricketer how much T20 earning potential does he lose by dropping the gloves. Certainly I would imagine his worth to the Melbourne Stars reduces. He goes from a certain starter to a batsman who'd be dropped if out of form. Not sure if he plays IPL but he wouldn't be far off in a good season. So on that basis if I was his missus or his dad I would probably tell him to keep the gloves