Love to captain whenever I get an opportunity: Matthew Wade after Australia skipper Aaron Finch’s injury

By ANI

GROS ISLET: Australia is likely to give Matthew Wade the captaincy for the ODI series against West Indies after regular skipper Aaron Finch injured his knee in the field during the fifth and final T20I on Friday (local time).

The Australian skipper’s injury also hampered the visitors’ chase as the Finch-led side fell 17 runs short of the target. West Indies scored 199 in the allotted 20 overs and then restricted Australia to 183 to wrap the T20I series.

The running between the wickets also put pressure on Australia as Finch wasn’t able to convert singles into doubles during the chase. Wade feels if Finch is ruled out of the ODI series he might get the opportunity to play and he just wants to “wait and see” before making up his mind.

“It’s a bit of a moving thing, the vice-captaincy. Going forward in the one-dayers I have no idea what will happen there. I am probably not expecting to play, especially if Finchy plays, but if he doesn’t there might be an opportunity for me to play,” cricket.com.au quoted Wade as saying.

“I came over here thinking I would play the T20s and I wouldn’t play the ODIs. I think some of the younger guys would get some opportunities to play them which is fair enough, I’ve been around a long time now.

“But if Finchy doesn’t come up there might be an opportunity to play, so we’ll wait and see,” he added.

The Australian wicket-keeper batsman had captained the side last summer in one T20I when Finch missed the game. However, he hasn’t played an ODI match in nearly four years.

“I love to captain whenever I get an opportunity. I captained in the T20s (against India last summer), and we’ve got plenty of different leaders here,” said Wade.

“Moises is a really good leader, Adam Zampa is getting better and better, ‘Starcy’ and ‘Hoff’ (Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood) go about their thing.

“Captaining is pretty easy at this level with those experienced guys around so if I got the opportunity I’d jump at it,” he added.

West Indies finished their innings at 199/8 after a half-century from Evin Lewis. The left-handed batsman had given a flying start to West Indies as the hosts scored 119 in the first 10 overs.

But Australian bowlers made a comeback and West Indies managed just 80 in the last 10 overs. The two sides will now lock horns in the three-match ODI series from Tuesday.