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Matthew Wade is content that his days representing Australia could be over and has given coach Andrew McDonald his blessing to begin thinking of Josh Inglis as his first-choice T20I wicketkeeper.
Wade has amassed 172 caps for Australia in limited-overs cricket and assumed the T20I captaincy when a hamstring injury struck Aaron Finch down during November’s home World Cup.
Finch retired from ODI cricket in September while David Warner’s Test future hangs in the balance. As a fellow member of the older guard, Wade has had pause to consider his own future this year.
The Tasmanian gloveman will turn 35 on Boxing Day and has already been phased out of the ODI side, with Alex Carey and Inglis both keeping wicket for Australia in the fifty-over format since Wade last played.
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Wade said he would continue to put his hand up for T20I honours but was comfortable if McDonald and selection boss George Bailey picked Inglis ahead of him from the next T20I series, to be played in South Africa next August.
“I’m getting a little bit older and at times they’re going to have to look to the future,” Wade said after his Hobart Hurricanes’ loss to the Sydney Sixers on Thursday.
“I’m ready to go if they want to pick me, but if they want to go down another direction for a little period of time before the (2024) World Cup and have a look at Inglis, then I understand that as well.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
“Josh has been waiting a long time to get opportunities to represent Australia and it hasn’t happened all that much for him.
“Nothing’s set in stone. I’d love to keep playing but if it doesn’t happen, that’s fine.”
In BBL commentary on Thursday night, Wade’s T20I teammate Adam Zampa said he had not given up on his own dream of one day playing Test cricket.
With one eye on the upcoming tour of spin-friendly India, Zampa ended a three-year Sheffield Shield hiatus to line up for NSW in November and throw his hat in the ring for a Test debut.
But the leg-spinner said he was not willing to cut back his white-ball workload in order to acclimatise to the longest form of the game and admitted that could preclude him from forging a Test career.
“I really love my role as the white-ball spinner. I love playing this much for Australia,” he told Fox.
“It’s probably going to be more of a campaign for the Indian Test series where maybe, if the wickets suit, then maybe I might be an option. But I haven’t played enough Shield cricket lately.
“Compromising my body, my time away from home, getting the balance right to play Shield cricket to potentially be the number one spinner for the Australian Test team is just not on my radar.”
With Nathan Lyon a lock for selection, Todd Murphy, Mitch Swepson and Tanveer Sangha will also be vying to line up as Australia’s second-choice spinner on the subcontinent come February.
But it was Ashton Agar who Zampa endorsed most heartily. “Ash, with limited opportunities, his game has developed so much in the last few years. He’s probably the guy,” he said.
The Sydney Sixers are off the bottom of the Big Bash ladder after defeating the fast-finishing Hobart Hurricanes by six runs at the SCG in their first win of the summer.
The Sixers posted a respectable 6-137 after winning the toss and choosing to bat in a clash delayed by an hour and condensed to 14 overs apiece due to rain.
The hosts lost 3-2 in a batting collapse that threatened to seal a third straight loss, but the bloodshed was bookended by solid knocks from openers Kurtis Patterson (38) and Josh Philippe (43), and then Hayden Kerr (32).
The Hurricanes’ tweakers Shadab Khan (2-32) and overnight sensation Paddy Dooley (2-19) were chief destroyers as captain Moises Henriques, veteran Dan Christian and 100-gamer Jordan Silk all went without scoring.
Henriques’ golden duck was his second from as many outings.
But the bowlers in magenta stood tall to scupper the Hurricanes, who briefly looked a chance to steal victory when Asif Ali (41 off 13 balls) belted five boundaries from as many deliveries across the final two overs.
“We thought this pitch would suit him, he likes slower kinds of wickets,” said Hurricanes captain Matthew Wade.
“It was good to see him get up.”
Veteran Sixers spinner Steve O’Keefe was miserly at 1-7, sending down eight dot balls and claiming the big wicket of reigning player of the tournament Ben McDermott (17).
Tipped as a future Australian representative, Todd Murphy (1-18) was determined to make the most of his first chance for the Sixers this summer.
Just as Khan and Wade looked ready to take charge, he enticed Wade (15) into mistiming a slog sweep and picking Silk out at deep mid-wicket for an easy catch.
“It was nice to have conditions in (the spinners’) favour for once. In T20 cricket you don’t usually get that,” Murphy said.
Naveen-ul-Haq could have caught Khan on two but the third umpire ruled the Sixers’ Afghan recruit had placed a foot on the boundary rope as he attempted to keep the ball alive and salvage a catch.
Paceman Kerr (2-36) had him an over after Wade went and the visitors were back to square one again after losing both established batters.
Just as all hope appeared lost for the Hurricanes, Ali pulled the trigger in the second last over with 26 runs off five balls to give Kerr nightmares and make the Sixers nervous.
The final delivery of the Kerr over appeared to travel above Ali’s waist on the full but the umpire opted against a no ball.
With an extra delivery, the swashbuckling veteran could have cut the deficit to within striking distance in the final over.
“It would’ve been nice if they called it. I think it was a 50/50 one, it looked like it dipped a little bit late,” Wade said.
The Hurricanes needed 16 runs from the final five balls but Ali’s furious knock came to an when Silk caught him on the boundary, leaving the Hurricanes just short at 7-131.
Fast bowler Umesh Yadav and offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared eight wickets to put India on top against Bangladesh on day one of the second Test in Dhaka.
Another pacer, Jaydev Unadkat, took the other two wickets on Thursday in his first Test in 12 years.
Bangladesh were dismissed for 227 and India reached 19 for no loss before bad light brought a premature end to the day with six overs remaining.
Shubman Gill was 14 not and captain KL Rahul on 3 after surviving a leg-before decision.
Mominul Haque, one of two changes by Bangladesh after a heavy defeat in the first Test last weekend in Chattogram, made a team-high 84 and was the ninth batter out. The home side lost its last five wickets for just 14 runs.
Most of the Bangladeshis made starts but failed to carry on on an otherwise good batting track. Mushfiqur Rahim made 26 and Liton Das added 25.
“It is very frustrating,” Bangladesh’s Australian batting coach, Jamie Siddons, said. “We work hard. We talk about when you’re in, you need to stay in. You have to make sure of a big score when you get a start.
“People made mental errors again when they were set. The ball was spinning but the pace bowlers weren’t getting off a great deal. To let Umesh get five wickets (four wickets) was very disappointing.”
Mominul, who replaced Yasir Ali, was dropped on 11 by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant off Ashwin (4-72).
However, Ashwin had Mominul caught by Pant when the batter’s glove was nicked trying to leave a turning delivery. He hit 12 fours and one six in his 157-ball knock.
After opting to bat first, Bangladesh openers Najmul Hossain and Zakir Hasan combined for 39 but both of them were dismissed in the space of three balls.
Unadkat made the breakthrough when he dismissed Zakir for 15 with a delivery that carried extra bounce.
Zakir, who made a century on debut in the first Test, could have gone for a duck had Mohammed Siraj not dropped him at backward square leg off Yadav in the second over.
Najmul was out for 24, offering no shot against Ashwin.
Captain Shakib Al Hasan joined Mominul and played some aggressive shots. But he went for one shot too many as he lobbed one straight to Cheteshwar Pujara at mid-off and gave Yadav (4-25) his first wicket.
Mushfiqur was caught behind to an Unadkat length delivery that moved slightly. Liton played some beautiful shots around the wicket, then chipped it straight to Rahul at midwicket off Ashwin.
In between, Mominul raised his 16th Test 50 off 78 balls with a fierce cut towards backward point for four off Unadkat.
Yadav found reverse swing in the final session and accounted for Mehidy Hasan Miraz (16) and Nurul Hasan Sohan (6), while Ashwin cleaned up the tail.
Ramiz Raja has been removed as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board by the government and Najam Sethi reappointed.
Sethi heads a new 14-member management committee including former Pakistan captains Shahid Afridi and Sana Mir.
The government has given them 120 days to restore department teams in the domestic set-up and form a new board of governors.
The government also repealed the PCB constitution and restored it to the 2014 position, aiming to bring back department teams. The current constitution, formed in 2019, did not recognise department teams.
“The cricket regime headed by Ramiz Raja is no more,” Sethi tweeted. “The Management Committee will work tirelessly to revive first-class cricket. Thousands of cricketers will be employed again. The famine in cricket will come to an end.”
The move followed the Pakistan Test team’s first 3-0 whitewash at home on Tuesday, inflicted by England.
New Zealand arrived on Thursday for two Tests and three one-day internationals, starting on Monday in Karachi.
Sethi said the home squad for the New Zealand series was announced by the previous board and they won’t change it.
“I wish the team is not announced and we could have approached from a different angle, but now it’s not the right time,” he said.
Sethi served as chairman from 2013-18. During his tenure, international teams gradually returned to Pakistan after the Sri Lanka bus was attacked in 2009.
Sethi also started the Pakistan Super League which attracted foreign cricketers.
He was replaced by Ehsan Mani after cricket great Imran Khan became the country’s prime minister. Mani abolished department teams and squeezed domestic cricket into six provincial teams at the behest of Khan.
However, prominent players and former board members urged the government to bring back department teams.
Mani didn’t accept an extension after his three-year tenure ended last year and Khan brought in Ramiz as the new chairman. Ramiz continued as the head despite Khan’s government ending this year and Shahbaz Sharif becoming prime minister.
It is a normal practice in Pakistan that the prime minister, who is also the PCB patron, appoints the head of the board though direct nominations.
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Shaheen Afridi of Pakistan celebrates after taking the wicket of Mosaddek Hossain of Bangladesh. (Photo by Mark Brake-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
“My primary duty is to restore the spirit of the 2014 constitution,” Sethi said at PCB headquarters in Lahore on Thursday.
“The most important thing for us is to change the domestic cricket structure . . . bring back departments and all the regions as there’s been a famine for the last four years.
“Tell me how many cricketers have come through domestic cricket? It looks like only PSL is supplying players. PSL is a very big international brand, and we will take the domestic cricket to that level, too, so that we can get good players from it.”
During Ramiz’s tenure, Pakistan reached the T20 World Cup final this year. However, they didn’t fare well in Test matches at home. Flat, grassless pitches were the focal point and Pakistan lost an unprecedented four home tests in a row in series losses to Australia and England this year.
The pitches prepared for both series were severely criticised and rated unworthy by the International Cricket Council.
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