After years of relishing playing while his career was on the brink, Matthew Wade has finally called time on a 13-year, 225-game all-format international career.
Wade, who played 36 Tests as well as 189 limited-overs matches for Australia, has announced his retirement from international cricket. He will continue to play white-ball cricket for Tasmania and the Hobart Hurricanes, as well as in some overseas leagues.
Plans for his post-playing career are already in train with the 36-year-old set to be Australia’s wicketkeeping and fielding coach for next month’s T20 series against Pakistan.
Wade played his final Test and ODI in 2021 and has freely admitted his T20I career could have finished that same year if not for his major role in delivering Australia their maiden men’s T20 World Cup title in the UAE.
The wicketkeeper-batter’s semi-final knock against Pakistan was his finest moment in coloured clothing and saw him retain the gloves for the ICC’s two ensuing T20 events, in 2022 and 2024.
But Australia’s exit at the hands of eventual champions India in the Caribbean earlier this year spelt the end.
“I’m officially retiring,” Wade, who called time on his first-class career at the end of last summer, told cricket.com.au.
“It’s been an ongoing discussion for pretty much every tour or every World Cup that I’ve been on in the last three or four years.
“It’s been a really fluent conversation that I’ve had with George (Bailey, chief selector) and Ronnie (coach Andrew McDonald) over the last six months or since the last World Cup finished.
“Even leading into the last World Cup, we’ve been really open and had really great communication around where I’m at with my career.
“If we went into the last World Cup and I managed to get some runs and we won that, then things would look maybe a little different and maybe I’d keep going … it was just kind of an understanding from all of us.”
Wade, who recently completed his Level Three coaching certificate and holds ambitions to one day be a head coach, endorsed Josh Inglis to take over as the T20I gloveman. The pair will work together during the Pakistan series.
Born in Tasmania, Wade moved to Victoria as a teenager having found himself stuck behind Tim Paine for the first-choice ‘keeping spot. He went on to win four Sheffield Shield titles in his adopted state, two as captain, before heading back to the Apple Isle in 2017.
He made his T20I and ODI debuts during the 2011-12 summer before winning his Baggy Green in Barbados in 2012 when Brad Haddin departed for personal reasons. He hit his maiden century in his third Test in Dominica and kept Haddin out of the side until 2013.
Wade jostled for the gloves with Paine, Haddin and Peter Nevill across all formats in the ensuing years before a breakthrough Sheffield Shield campaign in 2017-18 saw him earn a Test call-up as a specialist batter for the 2019 Ashes.
He finished with four Test tons, two coming during that drawn Ashes campaign, as well as one in ODIs, but arguably his finest moment came when he rescued his side with a 17-ball 41 in the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-final against Pakistan.
The left-handed Wade made the No.7 spot his own after that triumph, complementing powerful right-handers Tim David and Marcus Stoinis with his ability to hit square of the wicket. He also filled in as T20 captain 13 times between December 2020 and February 2024.
Inglis, on the other hand, has emerged as a different style of player during his stints in the side alongside or instead of Wade, being used more through the middle as well as spending some time as an opener and No.3
With two long-time T20 players calling it quits after this year’s World Cup – David Warner also played his final international – Australia now have two years to gel some new faces ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
“It probably hit home after we lost against India,” said Wade. “That was when I really sat down and reflected that that was probably the end of my career.
“That was an emotional moment. The relationships that I’ve built, more over the last three years in that team – I really enjoy playing in that team, and I felt really connected to that playing group and that coaching staff.
“That was a real moment that I sat down and reflected, and probably got a little bit emotional about the whole thing.
“Thankfully I was playing well enough for the last couple of years, and the way that the team lined up with Dave in the team, that I was going to be batting seven, and they wanted me to continue that position in the finishing role.
“The time was right for Ingo (Inglis) to come in. You can see what he’s done in the last (few months that) he’s been in the team as the No.1 ‘keeper. He was certainly ready to come in and take that role.
“They’re looking for maybe someone who can bat more top to middle order now as well and that suits him really well. So really comfortable and happy he’s got an opportunity now.”
Australia v Pakistan limited-overs series 2024
Australia ODI squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Cooper Connolly, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
Pakistan ODI squad: Mohammad Rizwan, Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi
November 4: MCG, 2.30pm AEDT
November 8: Adelaide Oval, 2.30pm AEDT
November 10: Perth Stadium, 2.30pm AEDT
Australia T20 squad: Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
Pakistan T20 squad: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Abbas Afridi, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Jahandad Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan.
November 14: Gabba, 7.00pm AEDT
November 16: SCG: 7.00pm AEDT
November 18: Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 7.00pm AEDT
All matches live and excluisve on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports
