Wade performed very well in the semi-final win over Pakistan. When the team entered the finals, Wade’s condition was serious as he was sent for a scan. Well, the team doctor, physiotherapist, and captain Aaron Finch already knew about his injury, but Wade kept denying it. “Day before the game, second last ball before the end of the session I did my side,” Wade stated. “I didn’t really want to go for a scan. But they sent me and then to the physio and the doctor’s credit they kind of hid the information from me and just said let’s see you pull up tomorrow and we’ll go from there.
“It pulled up about the same as what it felt the night before, so I went and hit some balls before the game and I tried to bluff my way through that, then they made me hit a few more so I got through it and felt pretty fine,” Finch said. “There was always a little bit of a fear,” Finch said. “I knew the result being a grade two, I thought that a grade two tear in his side was going to be tough. But if anyone’s going to play it would have been him. You would have had to cut his leg off for him not to be out there.
“I thought he kept brilliantly. Towards the back end I saw him in a bit of pain with a couple of dives and throws so yeah, he was never missing that though.” Team members had no idea about it until Glenn Maxwell watched Wade hit balls during their warm-up sessions. “The way he was gingerly hitting the underarms at the start might have given you a feel,” Maxwell stated. “I thought, ‘what is going on here hit the ball harder!’
He added, ‘I’ve got a side strain.’ I didn’t even know.” Wade, who said after the semi-finals. “Hopefully I get a few more games now,” Wade said. “I suppose that’s been the way I’ve been looking at it for the last couple of years anyway, to be honest. I never thought I’d get an opportunity to play again.
“Probably internationally I think, you know, this will be the last run at it. I’m contracted for Hobart Hurricanes and for Tassie [Tasmania] for a period of time and I still love playing Shield cricket, I still love playing for Tassie. “You get to the age where you know it’s a natural progression. We’ve got so many good young keepers coming up. Philippe and Inglis, and Carey is still around so you know those guys are pushing for spots and thankfully I could do what I did last World Cup and hopefully that gives me enough credit to get another crack at it next time.
“But just the progression. Those guys are good players. They’re going to be good players for a long period of time and they are going to need some exposure at international level at some stage,” he further added.
