ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 27, 2021

Matthew Wade

Dubai International Stadium

Australia

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. How do you see tomorrow's game? Sri Lanka is also coming back after a week free.

MATTHEW WADE: I think every game in this tournament is going to be hard work. As we're seeing throughout the tournament, every team in the competition on their day are going to be hard to beat. And Sri Lanka is certainly no different. They have had a few more games leading in than what we have as well.

No, they're a terrific team. They're going to challenge us with a favorable spin, I would've thought. They could be after 12 hours of spin, I reckon, that we'll probably face tomorrow. And it's going to be hard work. And we'll have to be at our best to beat any team in this tournament, and Sri Lanka will certainly be no different tomorrow.

Q. How do you see the Sri Lanka spin challenge, Wanindu Hasaranga, the spinner, and the mystery bowler, Maheesh Theekshana, have you analyzed him?

MATTHEW WADE: Yeah, we'll have a look at him over the next 24 hours. Yes, they have some terrific spin options and match winners, especially. We'll have to be at the top of our game against the spin.

We've got some terrific players, our spin ourself, Smith and Maxwell, those kind of guys will be really important for us tomorrow. Hopefully they can bat through that middle over period and we can back end it a little bit more than what we did in the first game.

It's an exciting challenge. We know if we're going to go deep into this tournament then we'll have to play the spin really well. And we're looking forward to the challenge tomorrow.

Q. Obviously the team are looking to get to start the tournament with back-to-back wins. How important is momentum going to be in this event?

MATTHEW WADE: Yeah, it will be really important to get two early wins in this tournament. It will be a really good start, obviously. As I said, every team on their day are difficult to beat. And as we go through this tournament, it's going to be no different.

Yeah, we'd love to start 2-0 obviously. But we know there's a lot of work ahead of us tomorrow to try and get to that stage. We just want to go out there and play the brand of cricket we know we can play.

We haven't had this team together all that much over the last two years. So the camp is in really good spirits and we're really enjoying being back together and playing cricket together.

As long as we concentrate on doing those things, enjoying the tournament, I'm sure we'll go deep into the tournament.

But the feeling around the group is good, and it's nice to be back around the team that we've had for a five- or six-year period. We just haven't had it together in the last few games, I suppose, few tournaments.

Q. Just interested in your take on if you're feeling more comfortable sort of batting in that middle role order there now and how difficult that change is from going from batting at the top to doing that?

MATTHEW WADE: Yeah, I'm starting to feel reasonably comfortable. As I said, coming into this tournament I've done it for a long, long period of time. I just probably haven't gone back there for the last few years. So now I'm really enjoying the challenge.

Loved the end of the innings batting with Marcus Stoinis, who obviously played a lot of cricket with him in Victoria, and we really enjoyed that out there. So going forward in the tournament, I'm probably more excited than anything about just getting out there, trying to finish some games for the team.

And it's nice that we can have myself and Stoinis down there at the bottom there. We didn't even use Pat the other day. So with the firepower we got at the top, if those guys get going, we have plenty of batting down in the order.

I'm enjoying it. Something different at training to challenge yourself. So it's been fun so far.

Q. What do you think is the biggest challenge? I guess it's probably a lot, obviously nonpower plays to the field, and a bit more spread, got guys back and the ball wouldn't be as hard, it will be soft at that point. Are those the main ones, or are there other things as well?

MATTHEW WADE: I think the biggest challenge is obviously the five guys out. When you get to open the batting, you don't have to deal with that so much. It's no doubt the biggest challenge.

But over here, speaking to the guys that played IPL, the teams and the players that did really well towards the back end, just played really good cricket shots to open the whole field up. Didn't shoot one side of the grand off. So that's what we are concentrating on doing.

And in between myself and Stony the other night, is just staying calm, backing yourself, that we can take it deep in the last over if we need to. If we need nine, 10, 12 on the last over, we've got the power to get one over the boundary. And staying calm, working with your partner, those are the two things I've probably taken out of it.

Q. Kusal Perera obviously is dangerous. I know you weren't playing the last World Cup, the one-day World Cup, but did a bit of damage for Sri Lanka, but how much -- you're in the bowling meetings, how much planning goes in to try to stop a guy like him?

MATTHEW WADE: There's plenty of planning that goes into T20. I'd love a lot of the public and the fans to see actually how much planning goes in. It's probably the most planned format, I think, over the three.

So the bowlers and Andrew McDonald, the bowling coach, spent a lot of time with the batters. And Perera is a world-class hitter, and he'll be looking to go hard against their bowlers. But that's the great thing about T20 and about World Cups, the best versus the best.

We're pretty confident that the guys that open the bowling for us can do a really good job and we can get early wickets and put them under a little bit of pressure. But, yeah, as excited as anyone to see those contests tomorrow.

Q. Just one more not on the middle order. The job that you have with Marcus, was it quite good in a way that you had that challenge in the first game to get the job done given, I guess it's been spoken about quite a lot, about how you're structuring the batting lineup for this tournament?

MATTHEW WADE: Yeah, it was nice to get out there. I'm not going to lie. Coming in I was supposed to play a couple of games back home and they got canceled due to COVID. So I haven't come in with a lot of cricket under my belt.

It was really nice to get out there, and five or ten balls in the middle is better than 10 or 12 net sessions. So it was nice to get out there. I would prefer not to, to be honest, over the next few games, it would be nice not to face any balls.

But I'll take a lot of confidence. And I'm sure Marcus does. We spoke about it, coming into this tournament, when we get the opportunity we want to grab it and get us home if we can. But we're hoping we don't have to do it too much. But as you said, it was nice to get out there and get some balls.

Q. On the tactics in the field, looked as though in the first game everything almost went perfect to plan. With the ball and in the field, like Max was able to get four overs in and stuff like that, how much input do you have in that with Aaron? Are you sort of working together, or is it other people in the field that have input with Aaron about how things are going in the field?

MATTHEW WADE: Yeah, we're really lucky we have so many good leaders. There's plenty of guys on the ground that have captained Australia and captained their states as well. We have leaders wherever you look. Yes, I work closely with Finch, as do the other leaders, Patty Cummins as well as vice captain.

There's plenty of leadership out there. We don't try and to give him too much information. As I said, there's a lot of planning that goes into T20 cricket. He's got a general idea how he's going to map out the T20 overs before we get in there. Yeah, there's certainly conversations out on the ground.

The other positive in this tour is you get a little break at 10 over so you can have a chat with the coach and players about how you're going to go with the last 10 overs.

And we all have our input, but not too much. He knows what he's doing.

Q. Just wanted to know about the impact of Josh in this format. He's a player who has been looked at primarily as a red ball bowler, but his experience in the IPL and the way he's bowling now, how heartening is it to see him come into this part of the game?

MATTHEW WADE: Josh has been huge over the last 12, 19 months for us in white ball cricket, not only 50-over but T20.

I think a lot like a guy that I played a lot of cricket with, Peter Siddle, kind of got pigeonholed earlier in his career as a test bowler. I think it's just because we didn't see Josh play a lot of white ball cricket. Hasn't played a whole heap of it at the international. I think he got pigeonholed because he wasn't exposed as much, but now you've seen him play a lot more white ball cricket, you work at how good a bowler he is.

His powerplay stuff, he's outstanding. More importantly I think what's underrated, his back end, closing out the innings with the ball, is certainly underrated.

Externally but internally we know how good he is. Yeah, he's been huge. He's one of those guys that you love to jump on the back of. He usually gets a cricket early and we stack with Cummins as well, throw him on top of it. We've got some nice bowlers to bowl in the first six, which is good.

Q. Really a lot has been spoken about the Sri Lanka spinners. But what about this team, in the past few games, it's nothing surprising to see Australians playing seamers, but what do you rate of the Sri Lankan seam attack?

MATTHEW WADE: They've got a great mix. You're right. They will come at us with a lot of spin, but they've got some quicks as well, some pace, some real pace.

They'll hit us up front with a couple of those, I think, and a few overs of spin in the first six. Then from the six through, you might see a little bit more. But, yeah, they'll probably start the innings and close out the innings, their quicks. So they've been really impressive. As I said, there's no easy game in this tournament.

We know that they're a terrific cricket team. And, yeah, they've got a nice mix at the moment. Nice balance of pace for a spin.

Q. What would you say about the lack of form of Aaron Finch and David Warner?

MATTHEW WADE: I don't see a lack of form at all. They're terrific players. They're just short of runs. To be honest, guys that are world-class players for as long as they have been in this format are never out of form. They're just short of runs at the moment.

We back them wholeheartedly. It's been spoken a lot about going into this tour about Davey especially. We know he'll come good. I've played long enough with him now that he's been under pressure plenty of times in his career, comes out, has a big score. So whether it's this game or whether it's a few games down the track, those two will definitely fall on some runs for us. We're sure of that.