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Hohns: Wade batting too far down the order to be selected

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9th January, 2019
14

Trevor Hohns’ advice to Matthew Wade, overlooked for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka despite being the Sheffield Shield’s leading run-scorer, is to bat higher up the order.

There was speculation that former keeper Wade, who scored 571 runs at 63.44 in the first half of the Shield season, could be recalled as a Test batsman.

Wade represented an in-form option in the middle order with two Test centuries to his name.

But Hohns believes Tasmania’s captain, who batted at No.6 even when Tim Paine was in the side, should be further up the order if he’s to be considered as a specialist batsman.

“It’s fantastic to see him scoring a lot of runs. It wasn’t long ago that he was in our Test squad, he struggled and we dropped him,” Hohns said.

“He’s playing as a wicketkeeper-batsman for Tasmania and it just so happens we have a wicketkeeper-batsman in our Test side who is the captain.

“If Matthew wants to be considered as a straight-out batsman, it would be nice to see him batting a little higher up for Tasmania.

“That conversation has been had.”

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Wade suggested last month he hadn’t “heard a word from the selectors” since being dropped from Australia’s Test and ODI teams.

“That’s how it is in the cricket world … it would have been nice to hear more from them,” he said.

Hohns also defended his panel’s treatment of Glenn Maxwell, who last year was overlooked for an Australia A tour of India then Test tour of the UAE.

Maxwell has opted out of this year’s Indian Premier League, declaring he has a burning desire to play Test cricket.

“Glenn hasn’t played Test cricket for us for a while and I guess right here and now, we are wanting him to focus on white-ball cricket with the World Cup coming up,” Hohns said.

“We’ve had several conversations with Glenn about all this and right now he is just content to focus on one-day cricket.

“However, he makes it very clear he would like to play Test cricket.”

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