Matthew Wade plans to defend T20 World Cup title in 2022 and retire: I can sail off into the sunset

Australia wicketkeeper Matthew Wade revealed that he wants to defend the T20 World Cup title on his home ground in 2022 and then he may announce his international retirement. Wade played a sizzling 41-run knock to help Australia seal a 5-wicket win over Pakistan in the second semifinal of the recently concluded T20 World Cup.

However, Wade was axed from Australia’s Test squad for the Ashes and his solitary goal is defending the T20 World Cup title at home. Australia went on to clinch their first ICC T20 title with a victory over New Zealand in the final in Dubai on Sunday and have less than a year to prepare for the next tournament, which starts in Oct. 2022.

“That’ll be my next motivation hopefully get to that World Cup, defend the title and then I can sail off into the sunset,” Wade was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“I certainly won’t be playing (international cricket) beyond that point. That would be my goal from here.”

Wade further revealed that he had played the final against New Zealand with a grade 2 side strain, which he got during training before the summit clash.

“I was a little bit worried the night before the game, for sure. If I had woken up and I couldn’t swing the bat, I wouldn’t have played,”

“I was worried that if we’d batted first and I had to go as hard as I could and I tore it then, I wouldn’t be able to keep and that would hurt the team a lot.

“But in my mind, they would have had to strap me to the bed. I was always going to go out there and play. But I wouldn’t have played if there was a chance it was going to hurt the team.