Matthew Wade

Personal life

Wade was born in Hobart on 26 December 1987. He is the son of Scott Wade, an Australian rules footballer who played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL), for Clarence and Hobart in the Tasmanian Football League (TFL), and served a long tenure as CEO of AFL Tasmania. His grandfather, Michael Wade, served as president of the Hobart Football Club. Wade is the cousin of Collingwood Football Club defender Jeremy Howe.

Wade represented Tasmania in underage cricket and underage football, vice-captaining the Tassie Mariners in the TAC Cup, where he played alongside future Australian Football League players Sam Lonergan, Grant Birchall and Jack Riewoldt. He represented Australia at the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

At the age of 16, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and received two rounds of chemotherapy before he was cleared of the disease.

Wade is colourblind. He has suffered difficulties on the field due to the colours of certain cricket balls.

Early days

Originally from Hobart, Tasmania, Wade played both cricket and Australian rules football until the age of 19, participating in the 2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup as well as playing underage football for the Tassie Mariners in the TAC Cup. After representing Tasmania in one List A match, he moved to Victoria for the 2007–08 season to further his opportunities. He soon established himself as Victoria's first-choice wicket-keeper, and was selected in the Australia A side in 2010, and made his debut for Australia the following season.

Domestic career

Wade played one List A match for the Tasmania Tigers in the 2006–07 Ford Ranger One Day Cup season, which was his only match for Tasmania in any form of the game. His opportunities to be selected as a wicketkeeper in his home state were minimal due to the presence of Tim Paine, who at the time was seen as the likely successor to Brad Haddin as wicketkeeper in the Australian national team. Rather than attempt to become a specialist batsman, Wade moved to Victoria in the 2007–08 season, and within two seasons he had established himself as the state's first choice wicketkeeper ahead of incumbent Adam Crosthwaite.

Wade scored his maiden first-class century in the 2008–09 season. He made an important contribution to Victoria's win in the 2009–10 Sheffield Shield final against Queensland, when he came out to bat with the team at 5/60 and scored 96 runs. Victoria won the match by 457 runs and Wade was named man of the match.

In January 2011, Wade signed up with the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.

In November 2013, Wade was suspended and fined for pitch tampering.

In February 2015, Wade scored 152 for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield, his highest first-class score to date.

International career

Following his success in domestic limited overs cricket, Wade was called up to the Australian team for the first time in October 2011, for a Twenty20 International against South Africa. In February 2012, he made his international breakthrough as a T20I player against India in Sydney, opening the batting and scoring 72 runs from 43 balls to earn the Man of the Match award.

Following that T20I series, Wade was called up to the Australian One Day International team for the 2011–12 Commonwealth Bank series. He won the Man of the Match award on debut, scoring 67 runs off 69 balls against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. During the series, he cemented his place as Australia's first choice limited overs wicket-keeper, and usually opened the batting.

Wade was part of the Australian team for the 2011–12 tour of the West Indies as the limited overs wicketkeeper. However, after Test wicketkeeper Brad Haddin returned home before the Test matches because his daughter was ill, Wade was selected to replace him. He made his Test debut on 7 April against the West Indies at Barbados, and scored his maiden Test century (106) in the third Test in Roseau. Wade was then selected ahead of Haddin for Australia's following Test series against South Africa in November 2012, and held his place until the end of the 2012–13 season, encompassing a home series against Sri Lanka, and a tour of India. He scored his second Test century in the third Test against the West Indies in Sydney.

However, from the 2013 Ashes series, Wade lost his Test position to Brad Haddin. He retained his position as ODI wicketkeeper for a period of time, but was ultimately left out of the Australian 2015 Cricket World Cup squad for Haddin. However, after the retirement of Brad Haddin at the end of 2014–15, Wade was recalled to the team for the ODI, and T20I series against England in 2015; but, lost the Test wicketkeeping position to Peter Nevill. It was not until November 2016, three and a half years after his previous Test match, that Wade returned to the Test team, recalled ahead of a struggling Nevill, for the third Test against South Africa, and the subsequent home series against Pakistan.

On 13 January 2017, in the first ODI against Pakistan of a 5-match series, Wade scored his maiden ODI century, which came from 100 balls. He reached 100 on the final ball of Australia's innings, and his effort came when Australia was in trouble at 5 for 95 early in the innings. On the second last ball he managed to get 2 runs off of a ball hit to the infield due to a misfield, which allowed him to retain the strike to complete the hundred. Wade was given out LBW earlier in his innings, but the decision was overturned after he asked for a review.

On 27 January 2017 he was named as ODI captain of Australia in injured Steve Smith's place for their series against New Zealand. He was not fit for the first ODI and ruled out from the squad. Aaron Finch was named stand-in captain for the match. Before the second ODI of that series Wade was ruled out of series due to back injury and Finch continued to captain in the remaining matches.