Finisher Wade feared semi-final would be his final outing

World Cup semi-final hero Matthew Wade conceded he went into the match against Pakistan thinking it could be his final international game.

After channelling Mike Hussey's heroics in 2010 in spearheading a remarkable late comeback to put Australia into the T20 World Cup final, Wade may well have secured a long-term spot in the T20I side that he admits he has never quite cemented.

Set up by a nerveless knock from Marcus Stoinis, the 33-year-old made Pakistan pay after Hasan Ali dropped him on the boundary to leave the Aussies needing 18 to win off the final nine balls of the innings.

Wade took just three deliveries, slamming three successive sixes off this tournament's most incisive and exciting bowler, Shaheen Shah Afridi, in a breathtaking sequence that put his side into the final of a T20 World Cup for just the second time.

There had been question marks over Wade's place in Australia's T20 team in recent years, with Alex Carey, Tim Paine and Peter Handscomb all having been tried as the wicketkeeper in the years since the 2016 tournament which Wade was deposed for at the eleventh hour by Peter Nevill, while the presence of the uncapped Josh Inglis in this squad had several pundits calling for his inclusion.

"I was a little bit nervous coming into the game and knowing that potentially this could be the last opportunity I get to represent Australia," Wade, who finished with 41no from only 17 balls, told reporters after the remarkable five-wicket win.

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2021/11/12Hasan-drop-embed?la=en&hash=902E7D139D549FF7D58C692DC6C70D06B1F64CF7 Image Caption: Hasan Ali drops Matthew Wade, who hit the next three balls for six to win the match // Getty

"I just wanted to do well and really wanted us to win this game to give us an opportunity to win the whole thing.

"We've got a great bunch of guys in that dressing room and guys that I've played for a long, long period of time with."

It may not have been quite as extraordinary as Hussey's 60 off 24 in St Lucia against the same opponents over a decade ago but the two knocks share a striking similarity – they took Australia from the brink of elimination into a final.

Hussey's improbable 2010 knock saw Australia face England in a decider they lost by seven wickets, they closest they have come to lifting the trophy.

This time they will face New Zealand in a rematch of the 2015 ODI World Cup.

"This game was harder, nerves-wise, than maybe what the final will be because now we're in it, we've got nothing to lose," said Wade.

"We're going to go out there and do our absolute best and that might be my last game (for Australia) too.

"And as I've said to you before in the past, I'm comfortable with that.

"If that is it then that is it. I'll play as long as they need me."

The squad's back-up keeper, the uncapped Inglis, is nipping at his heels with strong performances in the KFC BBL and domestically in England this year, yet Wade's clutch performance will not be forgotten anytime soon.

Australia will not be thinking about it just yet, but they are hosting the next T20 World Cup in 12 months' time.

Whether or not Wade makes it that far, he is already grateful for a rollercoaster career that notably saw him return to the Test team as a specialist batter for the 2019 Ashes after he looked to have worn the Baggy Green for the last time two years earlier.

Wade, who has also stood in as captain of the T20 team at times over the past 12 months, has had to adjust to batting at six or seven during this tournament, which presents a markedly different challenge to the opening role he has excelled in for the Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL.

"I'm just happy that I got the opportunity to reinvent myself, to go away and come back with more confidence and really feel like I belong at international level now," said Wade.

"I reinvented myself into a batsman and then all of a sudden now I'm playing as a keeper-batsman again and batting down at seven.

"The older I am the more eyes-wide-open I am about the opportunity I got. It didn't worry me to go down the order, it hasn't worried me at all whether I captained or not.

"I don't know when my last game is going to be, I treated every game like it potentially could be.

"I'm sure when it's all over, when I get the tap on the shoulder I'll look back on the last three or four years and be really proud of the way that I came back.

"It's not the first time that I've come back – I've been dropped four or five times. It might be the most ever in Australian cricket."

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Australia's squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Dan Christian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams

Oct 23: Australia beat South Africa by five wickets

Oct 28: Australia beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets

Oct 30: England beat Australia by eight wickets

Nov 4: Australia beat Bangladesh by eight wickets

Nov 6: Australia beat West Indies by eight wickets

Semi-finals

Nov 10: New Zealand beat England by five wickets

Nov 11: Australia beat Pakistan by five wickets

Final

Nov 14: New Zealand v Australia, Dubai (6pm local, 1am Nov 15 AEDT)

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

Click here for the full 2021 ICC T20 World Cup schedule

Click here for the full squads for all 16 teams

Super 12 stage

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, Namibia