THAT SINKING FEELING

Tasmania’s Matthew Wade was in the firing line yesterday after a disappointing dismissal during the third Test against India

THERE’S a fine line between fearlessness and recklessness and Matthew Wade needs to find it in a hurry.

Wade, pictured, has reinvented himself over the past two years as a heavy duty tough man, sacrificing himself to solve Australia’s opening crisis in the first two Tests.

Those hard-nosed traits were on display again on Friday as the Tasmanian used short-leg fieldsman Hanuma Vihari as a human dart board.

The left-hander made a decision to relentlessly sweep Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja at every opportunity and left his imprint on Vihari on at least three occasions in a brutal battle.

But Vihari did not move. Jadeja also held firm. And in the end it was Wade who blinked first. Charging down the wicket and getting nowhere near the pitch of the ball as he squirted one skywards to midon, Wade threw his wicket away for 13, just three overs before the new ball was due.

The brain fade exposed 21year-old rookie Cameron Green and wicketkeeper Tim Paine to Jasprit Bumrah in full flight, and suddenly out of nowhere, Steve Smith was left to do it all with the tail.

Test great Ricky Ponting was highly critical of a “lack of game awareness” from Wade.

“Matthew Wade needs to have a lot more game awareness, as far as I’m concerned. In a situation like that, Matthew Wade has been opening in the last couple of Test matches so the new ball is not going to faze him,” said Ponting on Channel 7.

“But what he’s done by getting out is expose Cameron Green to the new ball, a guy in his third Test, and for mine that is just not thinking enough about the situation of the game.”

Green was trapped lbw by Bumrah for a duck, Tim Paine had his stumps knocked over by the spearhead for 1 and Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon also fell without scoring.

Former Test selector Mark Waugh also accused Wade of “poor discipline” and said Australia needed much more from him – particularly after he fell in much the same fashion at the MCG last week.

His dismissal was perhaps the key factor in Australia losing 8-132 and butchering the platform that had been set by Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.

Wade has not made a half century in his past 11 consecutive Test innings, all of each have been on home soil.

The former wicket-keeper’s reinvention as a top order batsman has been one of Australian cricket’s most underrated comebacks – but Wade has to snap his run of making keepertype scores. Wade has proven he’s very capable of heavyduty Test match hundreds – but Australia needs some more consistency.

Particularly now Travis Head – six years his junior has just been dropped despite a hundred last Boxing Day and a superior batting average.

Wade has developed into a strong leader around the group, but at 33 years of age, now he is back in the middleorder, he doesn’t have much margin for error.