Matthew Wade's fitness to be tested before the first Test in Pune

Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade suffered a setback when he could not captain his side in the Chappell-Hadlee trophy due to a back injury. He was appointed as the stand-in captain in the absence of their regular captain Steve Smith and since David Warner also opted out.

Wade, however, got injured during training with the assistant coach Brad Haddin. He reported a sour back after diving for a catch in training and was resting since. Anyhow, he has been termed fit and has flown to Dubai to join the preparations for the Border-Gavaskar trophy in India.

Australia’s tour of India begins from 23rd February in Pune and Wade is most likely to feature in the first Test. He might also play a practice game in Mumbai next week. Coach Darren Lehman was convincing of the 29-year-old, he said “If there was any doubt, he wasn’t going to get on the plane. So that’s a good thing.”

Wade did not have a series to remember when he toured India back in 2013. He scored a total of 118 runs in six innings at a miserable average of 18.83. He will look to do well this time around if he manages to stay fit during this series.

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Australia don’t have a regular backup keeper in their squad. Peter Handscomb is more than fine in that position. “The bonus with the squad is you’ve got someone who can keep pretty well. That’s handy, having that just in case something happens,” said Lehmann.

Wade’s fitness will be assessed before the series begins. He will play a lot of practice matches in UAE and Mumbai although he will miss the Inter-squad game at the ICC-headquarters.

When asked about including Peter Nevill as he is performing well in the domestic circuit Lehmann said that no changes will take place until something goes wrong in the practice games. He said: ‘Unless something flares up during the Dubai leg or tour game, we’ll stay status quo.”

Ben Dunk has been included for Chris Lynn who is also injured and will miss the series against Sri Lanka. He is ruled out with a neck injury, he also missed the ODI series against Pakistan having only played one of the five ODI’s.