Wicketkeeper Batsman Matthew Wade has been named as the captain of the Australian Men’s team that would play a five-match series against Bangladesh starting August 3 in Dhaka.
Regular skipper Aaron Finch got injured while playing against West Indies in the recent T20I series and flew back to Australia. Alex Carey was named the ODI captain in Finch’s absence, but Wade has been given the opportunity in T20Is.
"When you come in and take over from someone it's just about giving the ability for those guys to really take ownership of their game and at the top of the mark, they need to execute,” Wade said after being given the new responsibility.
The 33-year-old Hobart Hurricanes skipper has also led Victoria and Tasmania in domestic competitions and hence the pressure won’t be under much pressure. But he doesn’t shy away from saying that it is going to be challenging. "It's a different challenge. Thankfully I've played for Australia in the middle order a lot, especially in one day cricket,” he said.
"I'm obviously wicketkeeping so the distance between the bowler and myself is a lot greater and that means there's a lot more responsibility on the individual," he added.
The five T20Is have been cramped in a duration of just seven days with the fifth T20I taking place on August 9.
Squads:
Australia: Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade (captain), Adam Zampa. Travel reserves: Nathan Ellils, Tanveer Sangha.
Bangladesh: Mahmudullah (captain), Soumya Sarkar, Naim Sheikh, Shakib Al Hasan, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Shaif Uddin, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Mithun, Taijul Islam, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Rubel Hossain.