He had a huge scare on Friday, on eve of the second Test when he suffered a fracture on his cheek bone during a practice session. But fortunately it was not too serious to pull out of the important Test. Matthew Wade took a brave decision to play and the wicketkeeper played a huge role in his 145 run stand with his skipper Michael Clarke after Australia were reduced to 63 for 4 in the 22nd over.
For Wade, there was no doubt whether to play or not. “ I just needed to check how I woke up just to make sure my eye didn’t close over. When I woke up, I looked in the mirror and I could see properly,” said Wade.
But the valiant Wade showed courage and character in his 180 minute stay at the crease to score 62.
“Maybe I felt in control today. I felt like my plans against the spin and the quicks came off pretty well. I’m still pretty disappointed to get out” he said. The wicket-keeper batsman said there was more up and down bounce in the first hour and hence they declared the innings.
“Obviously with the ball little bit harder, there was probably a little more up and down bounce in the first hour or so. Hence the reason we probably declared hoping a couple of nicks or a couple of lbws tonight. That didn’t happen but we are pretty confident that if we hit the stumps enough, we are going to create enough chances.”
Wade felt having two spinners in Glenn Maxwell and Xavier Doherty, they would play a big role on this wicket. The wicket here was different than Chennai.
“They are probably two different wickets. But it is day one of the Test match, the spin is not as big. When conditions suit the spinners, it’s an important shot for a couple of our players. If conditions suit and I feel like it’s on, I will go back to it. It’s about assessing when we play them. Going into day four and five, it will probably play its role.”
Wade felt that Indian bowlers did well. “The ball went reversing. They got early wickets. They challenged us with every ball they bowled to us.”
He said, “ it was nice to have his skipper Clarke in the middle. It would have been really nice if we had still been in tonight.”
Any lead will be advantage to the team. “We can definitely restrict India to under 230. We have got to bowl well enough.”
On the declaration, they expected a wicket or two. “That’s the reason we declared but that was the message, let’s get in there and get a couple of wickets.”