Matthew Wade has revealed he almost missed last Sunday’s T20 World Cup final, playing with a side strain sustained in training the day before the match.
Posing at the MCG today with the trophy him and his team won in an eight-wicket victory over New Zealand, Wade made the revelation that he was in so much pain on the day of the match that he was unable to warm up at one hundred percent, nursing the pain in the match’s lead-up.
“If I had have woken up and I couldn’t swing the bat, I wouldn’t have played,” Wade told cricket.com.au.
“I was worried that if we’d batted first and I had to go as hard as I could and I tore it then, I wouldn’t be able to keep and that would hurt the team a lot.”
Wade wasn’t required with the bat, largely thanks to the the work of David Warner (53 from 38 balls) and the unbeaten third wicket partnership of Mitchell Marsh (77* from 50 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (28* from 18 balls). Wade masqueraded the pain as the team limbered up in a desperate bid to stay in the XI.
“I went and hit some balls before the game and bluffed my way through that. Then they made me hit a few more, but I got through it and it felt pretty fine.”
“But in my mind, they would have had to strap me to the bed. I was always going to go out there and play. But I wouldn’t have played if there was a chance it was going to hurt the team.”
Sent for scans after the injury, Australia’s medical staff chose not to inform Wade that his pain was in fact a grade two strain.
Had Wade been ruled out of the final, Josh Inglis, the other ‘keeper in the Australian squad, would have made an international debut in a T20 World Cup final.
Wade also conceded that Australia’s title defence on home soil next year is likely to be his last international assignment.
“That’ll be my next motivation – hopefully get to that World Cup, defend the title and then I can sail off into the sunset,” he said.
“I certainly won’t be playing (international cricket) beyond that point. That would be my goal from here.”
(Source and courtesy: https://www.t20worldcup.com/news)
