First Ashes Test. Edgbaston.
Edgbaston was the 3rd Test in 2015:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/113 ... eland-2015
Look at those scores: 136, 281, 265, ...
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/113 ... eland-2015
Look at those scores: 136, 281, 265, ...
Specialist batsman Matthew Wade sheds the gloves and the pressure
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id ... s-pressure
"He had spent much of his playing life trying to fit a model of player - the Adam Gilchrist-inspired batsman-keeper - that Australian cricket fervently desired, only to find diminishing returns the older he got.
Those who saw and were critical of some of Wade's performances behind the stumps, notably his struggles at times to hold chances presented off Nathan Lyon, did not see the mental strain Wade experienced each time he tried to fulfil the role. At Edgbaston, able simply to run around the field and even bowl, Wade could not help but notice the difference.
...
In winning his 2016 recall and then being dropped again the following year, a few months before the Newlands ball-tampering scandal engulfed Cricket Australia, Wade came to realise, too, that his reputation for abrasiveness and a football-inspired mentality were hindering him as much as it helped.
...
Much of the playing method Wade found was underpinned by close work with Tasmania's batting coach Jeff Vaughan, who was a source of reassurance even after Wade's brief first innings at Edgbaston, providing reminders that all their groundwork together, and the avalanche of runs for Tasmania, Hobart Hurricanes and Australia A that it reaped, would hold up in the Ashes. Come the second innings, Wade was far calmer than he might have been in earlier years.
... "It's my defence and being able to leave the ball and make the bowlers come to me a little bit will help me score. I probably chased the game a little bit hard when I was a younger player and playing as a specialist batsman after you follow Gilchrist, the perception is that you're going to be an attacking batsman."
That evolution includes an acknowledgement that, while ostensibly the back-up gloveman on this Ashes tour in the event of an injury to Paine, Wade knows his final few years in the game will be primarily as a batsman. He is, at long last, completely comfortable to be playing that one, single role."
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id ... s-pressure
"He had spent much of his playing life trying to fit a model of player - the Adam Gilchrist-inspired batsman-keeper - that Australian cricket fervently desired, only to find diminishing returns the older he got.
Those who saw and were critical of some of Wade's performances behind the stumps, notably his struggles at times to hold chances presented off Nathan Lyon, did not see the mental strain Wade experienced each time he tried to fulfil the role. At Edgbaston, able simply to run around the field and even bowl, Wade could not help but notice the difference.
...
In winning his 2016 recall and then being dropped again the following year, a few months before the Newlands ball-tampering scandal engulfed Cricket Australia, Wade came to realise, too, that his reputation for abrasiveness and a football-inspired mentality were hindering him as much as it helped.
...
Much of the playing method Wade found was underpinned by close work with Tasmania's batting coach Jeff Vaughan, who was a source of reassurance even after Wade's brief first innings at Edgbaston, providing reminders that all their groundwork together, and the avalanche of runs for Tasmania, Hobart Hurricanes and Australia A that it reaped, would hold up in the Ashes. Come the second innings, Wade was far calmer than he might have been in earlier years.
... "It's my defence and being able to leave the ball and make the bowlers come to me a little bit will help me score. I probably chased the game a little bit hard when I was a younger player and playing as a specialist batsman after you follow Gilchrist, the perception is that you're going to be an attacking batsman."
That evolution includes an acknowledgement that, while ostensibly the back-up gloveman on this Ashes tour in the event of an injury to Paine, Wade knows his final few years in the game will be primarily as a batsman. He is, at long last, completely comfortable to be playing that one, single role."
More on Wade and keeping vs. batting, following his boom-bust-boom Ashes:
"He said on Monday he would bat at No. 4 in Tasmania's opening Sheffield Shield clash against Western Australia at the WACA on Thursday and revealed he was unlikely to take the gloves again in red-ball cricket.
"I think my keeping days are probably gone in red-ball cricket unless the team are looking to play another batsman. Then I will keep. Whatever we think is our best make up," Wade said.
"But in terms of what is going on at the next level for me playing as a batter, then I will be concentrating on that ... leave the gloves behind."
Test skipper Tim Paine, having recovered from a broken thumb, will take the gloves for the Tigers in Perth, with Wade captaining the Tigers. Batsman Ben McDermott had been wicketkeeper through the opening four domestic one-day matches.
...
"Playing the whole series in England, at stages I felt I was just holding on a little tight then. Once it got towards the end, I felt as if I got into that zone of just playing free cricket without holding on too tight to Australian selection," Wade said."
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket ... 52yeg.html
"He said on Monday he would bat at No. 4 in Tasmania's opening Sheffield Shield clash against Western Australia at the WACA on Thursday and revealed he was unlikely to take the gloves again in red-ball cricket.
"I think my keeping days are probably gone in red-ball cricket unless the team are looking to play another batsman. Then I will keep. Whatever we think is our best make up," Wade said.
"But in terms of what is going on at the next level for me playing as a batter, then I will be concentrating on that ... leave the gloves behind."
Test skipper Tim Paine, having recovered from a broken thumb, will take the gloves for the Tigers in Perth, with Wade captaining the Tigers. Batsman Ben McDermott had been wicketkeeper through the opening four domestic one-day matches.
...
"Playing the whole series in England, at stages I felt I was just holding on a little tight then. Once it got towards the end, I felt as if I got into that zone of just playing free cricket without holding on too tight to Australian selection," Wade said."
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket ... 52yeg.html