Matthew Wade’s breezy 41 helped Australia defeat an undefeated Pakistani team in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. The wicket-keeper batsman scooped and ramped his way hit 4 sixes while chasing down a target that had seemed improbable in the 18th over.
While, the wicket-keeper/batsman is being celebrated in Australia and by fans of the sport all over the world, very few actually know the warrior that Wade actually is.
Wade had already defeated cancer at the age of 16, long before he made it into international cricket.
And just a few years ago, when he was dropped from the Australian international squad, he had taken up a carpentry apprenticeship due to the sport’s fickle nature.
Speaking about those days where Wade had joined him as a carpenter, his former boss, Ben Langford says:
He had to think about life after cricket. At that stage in his career things were a bit up in the air and not knowing where things were heading. “It was a good opportunity for him to jump into it and put the nail bag on and have a crack at something different.
Wade has always been a tough character, both on and off the field.
Mate, he’s just determined. When people knock him back or give him no for an answer it makes him work even harder. It may sound silly but I think he might actually enjoy being knocked back because he likes to show people what he can actually do and put people in their place a little bit.
Wade had been dropped after the 2017 tour of Bangladesh, as well as concerns over his wicket-keeping.
Even when he was scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket, the selectors had dismissed him asking him to bat up the order. So imagine the absolute mental prowess it must have taken to get selected to don the baggy green as a specialist batsman.