{"id":27859,"date":"2021-01-27T22:47:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T23:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=27859"},"modified":"2021-01-28T00:03:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T00:03:26","slug":"the-real-problem-facing-discarded-batsman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=27859","title":{"rendered":"'The real problem' facing discarded batsman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor says Matthew Wade faces an uphill battle to play Test cricket again, following his axing from the squad to tour South Africa.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wade averaged just 21.63 against India, the second consecutive home series where he's averaged under 30.<\/p>\n

He hasn't passed 50 in Test cricket since November 2019, a run of outs that stretches to 14 innings, culminating in a duck in the final innings in Brisbane last week, when he was unlucky to be caught down the leg-side.<\/p>\n

He also had a spell as Australia's stop-gap opener against India, when both David Warner and Will Pucovski were unavailable.<\/p>\n

Rather than travelling to South Africa with the Test team<\/a>, Wade will instead be in New Zealand with the T20 side.<\/p>\n

"I can understand the decision to leave Wade out, although I do feel a little sorry for him," Taylor told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Batting out of position as an opener for a couple of Tests against a good bowling side, and then when he went back to his preferred position in the middle order he missed out.<\/p>\n

"That last innings in Brisbane, strangled down the leg-side, will no doubt be a bitter pill to swallow."<\/p>\n

Taylor said the Gabba Test, where Wade was on track for a big first-innings score before a poor shot resulted in his dismissal<\/a>, could prove career-defining.<\/p>\n

"He will absolutely be kicking himself over his dismissal in the first innings at the Gabba, when he made 45 and looked good," Taylor explained.<\/p>\n

"He was going well and then he played a really strange-looking shot which was the wrong shot for that ball.<\/p>\n

"That was his opportunity to turn the 45 into something substantial and if he'd done that, he'd be on the plane to South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"But that's the realities of professional sport, it's such a fine line between cementing your spot and being dropped."<\/p>\n

Taylor noted the lack of red-ball opportunities for Wade at Sheffield Shield level, along with his age, will make a Test return tough.<\/p>\n

"That's going to be a real problem for him, because the next real opportunity for him in the Shield will be next summer, when he's about to turn 34."<\/p>\n

The selection of the two squads, comprising a total of 37 players, also spells bad news for Usman Khawaja, who last played for Australia during the 2019 Ashes series.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old was overlooked for both tours, confirming his days in the national set-up appear done.<\/p>\n

"I don't think they'll put a line through anyone these days, particularly in the current environment where you've got such big squads," Taylor said.<\/p>\n

"But the fact that 37 players have been picked across multiple formats of the game and Khawaja has missed out, the writing is on the wall for Usman."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor says Matthew Wade faces an uphill battle to play Test cricket again, following his axing from the squad to tour […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27861,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27859\/revisions\/27861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}