With star opener David warner Ruled out with a groin injury and young Will Pucovski, who was prepared to start in the first Test, suffering a concussion, the home side elevated Wade to the starting role.
Wade started the innings alongside Joe Burns, sadly out of shape. The two battled in the middle and could only handle eight runs each before the Indian pace led Jasprit bumrah accounted for both.
When asked if the bet to go with Wade at the top backfired, Border told foxsports.com.au “Yeah, exactly that.”
“It was a gamble because you’re taking a guy (Wade) out of his usual position in Test Match. Yeah, he opens cricket short, but that’s a very different beast than what they’re facing right now.”
Wade, who starts for Australia at T20, has never hit that spot in testing. His elevation allowed rookie Cameron Green to rank number six.
“… Try cricket on this type of surface here, you need to be resourceful and have experience opening up the batting,” Border said.
01:56Test 1: Ashwin puts India on top against Australia on Day 2
The 65-year-old admitted he expected to see the prodigious Pucovski open the innings.
“I used to agree with the bet in the sense that I didn’t see an obvious replacement with Pucovski out, I was hoping he was fit to play,” he said.
Burns was chosen in the eleven game despite his losing streak recently. In the two warm-up games before the four-test series, Burns failed to hit double digits, scoring 4, 0, 0 and 1 in four innings.
“With Burnsy, I mean, we were always worried about that because he hasn’t shown any form,” Border said.
“His footwork, mentally he’s a little low and he’s just out of luck. The experiment didn’t work anyway, we always worried that would be the case,” Border added.
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