Matthew Wade retires from international cricket ahead of Pakistan T20 series

Australian World Cup winner Matthew Wade announced his retirement from international cricket on Tuesday and will become an assistant coach with the national team.

The wicket keeper-batsman played 36 Tests and 189 limited-overs matches for his country, and was a pivotal figure in their T20 World Cup triumph in 2021.

The 36-year-old is now set to be wicketkeeping and fielding coach for the T20 series against Pakistan next month.

“I’m officially retiring,” Wade said, according to Cricket Australia.

“It’s been an ongoing discussion for pretty much every tour or every World Cup that I’ve been on in the last three or four years.”

Matthew Wade played for his country for 13 years and filled in as T20 captain between December 2020 and February 2024.

He was part of the Australia team that made an early exit from the T20 World Cup in June.

“If we went into the last World Cup and I managed to get some runs and we won that, then things would look maybe a little different and maybe I’d keep going,” he said.

“It was just kind of an understanding from all of us.”

Australia on Monday left out their Test stars for the home Twenty20 series against Pakistan, with a new captain set to be named.

The three-match T20 series next month will conclude only four days before Australia embark on the first of a five home Tests against India.

Australia T20 squad: Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa