With Matthew Wade woefully out of form, Peter Nevill may get the Ashes nod

All eyes will be on Smith's men to see if they can salvage some pride after being decimated 3-0 by Virat Kohli-led team India

By: Ankit Banerjee |
September 27, 2017 12:38 pm

With Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade woefully out of form, there is an ongoing hunt for a new Ashes wicketkeeper. It seems wicketkeeper-batsman Peter Nevill is the frontrunner for that portfolio. Wade, who was recently in India for the One-Day Internationals, managed to score merely 11 runs in 2 games and hence was axed for the 3rd ODI at Indore. Peter Handscomb, who doesn’t have a lot of experience behind the stumps, had taken Wade’s place. Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy, who has at times been Nevill’s mentor, has backed him for the Ashes. The current Australian team has very little time left before they host England for the all-important Ashes next month.

Ian Healy and Nevill were with News Corp, where, Nevill mentioned that he had benefited a great deal after talking to Ian Healy. He said that they had discussions about his batting and wicketkeeping.

Peter Nevill was quoted as saying,

Most of it is just chatting with him. Having him run an eye over everything and doing drills with him and seeing if there’s anything he sees there. There was nothing technically, it was just more having a good chat about what the keys were. The things he focused on when he was wicketkeeping and just chatting through the intricacies of that. It was very beneficial.

He added,

He’s someone who is generous with their time. He always says he’s only ever a phone call away and if I want to talk to him about anything or send him any footage or anything like that he’s always more than willing to accommodate. So I’m very lucky with that.

Meanwhile, the Australian team is in India and have already lost the series by 3-0. The Indian spinning duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal proved to be too good for the Australian batsmen. But it is Hardik Pandya who has been the highlight of the tournament. He has bagged a couple of Man of the Match awards already for his all-round show.

The fourth ODI will take place at Bengaluru and the weather predictions are not in favour as there are high possibilities of a rainshower.