Australia’s wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade says he won’t be drawn into verbal battles with the Indian cricket team when they tour Down Under later this year.
Virat Kohli and co. are scheduled to visit Australia for a four-Test series in December — including a day-night Test — which will be followed by a three-match ODI series.
During the 2018/19 Border Gavaskar Trophy series, the Australians, as was revealed by captain Tim Paine in The Test documentary, tried to steer clear of any verbal duel, and Wade wants to tread on a similar path when the Indian team pay them a visit later this year.
“I’ll go out and play the way I like to play,” Wade told cricket.com.au. “We certainly don’t go out chasing it. If it comes our way then you deal with it out on the field. They use it to their advantage really well, the Indians. Virat’s very clever in the way he uses his words or his body language so they [India] use it as an advantage.”
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has said his countrymen’s reluctance to sledge their Indian opponents comes from a desire not to jeopardise valuable IPL deals, but for Wade, the only concern is to not give them an edge on the field.
“To be honest I don’t want to engage too much into that, I know they thrive off that energy which comes from two players. They are probably as good at doing that as anyone in the world at the moment, so it’s something I might stay away from this time.”
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The last time India toured Australia — in the Australian summer of 2018/19 — they returned with their first-ever Test series win in the country.
