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Ashes 2019: Carey unfortunate to miss to clear favourite Wade

Matthew Wade pipped Alex Carey to Australia's Ashes squad

Matthew Wade pipped Alex Carey to Australias Ashes squad

Kolkata, July 27: The 17-man Australian squad for the upcoming Ashes was announced on Friday and led by Tim Paine, it saw some key selections and unlucky omissions.

One of the most unfortunate players to not have made the squad is wicket-keeper-batsman Alex Carey who had a good ICC World Cup 2019. In the showpiece event, Carey scored 375 runs and effected 20 dismissals and made it to the ICC's Team of the Tournament.

But yet, the Australian selectors couldn't accommodate him in the squad. Carey had hit a hundred in his last first-class match in December and showed enough signs of improvement in his batting. Yet, he has to wait for more time to make his debut in red-ball cricket.

The player who pipped Carey was Matthew Wade, who finally got the rewards for trying hard to get back into the national side. It was around the last Ashes in 2017 that the Australian selectors were accused of disrespecting Wade by dropping him in a game against India.

But this time around, his extraordinary form could not be overlooked and after he was called into the World Cup squad as a replacement for an injured Usman Khawaja towards the end of the tournament, his prospects always looked bright. He has even started bowling medium pace to add to his value.

Not too long back, Wade was very much in the thick of things. He was Australia's incumbent wicket-keeper-batsman in both Tests and ODIs. He was even made the captain for the 2016-17 ODI tour of New Zealand but a back injury put him out of the series.

Thereafter, a lean phase in the Test and ODI tours to India in 2017 (March and September, respectively) saw Paine pipping him in the Test and 50-over formats. And the arrival of Carey filled up the slot in the T2oIs also (Carey is also keeping in ODIs now).

It was looking tough for 31-year-old Wade but a top-class finish in the Sheffield Shield where he slammed three centuries towards the end of the season saw him coming back into the reckoning.

He also plundered runs in the Big Bash League and was declared Australia's domestic player of the year after scoring 1800 runs overall in the season. Wade then performed for Australia A in the tour of England and it made his recall to the national side after almost two years inevitable.

Story first published: Saturday, July 27, 2019, 13:03 [IST]
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