Two key vacancies exist in the one-day team. One, the captain in place of the retired Michael Clarke, will surely be Steve Smith. The other, in place of the retired Brad Haddin, looks set to go to Matthew Wade, but the opportunity for Peter Nevill to impress in the longest form of the game in the current Ashes series cannot be discounted.

That it was 29-year-old Nevill, and not Wade, who has officially become the understudy Test wicketkeeper and therefore stepped up when Haddin was unavailable for the second Test is a quirk given the past two times they have been in the same squad, for Victoria in 2008 and for Melbourne Renegades last summer, it was Nevill who stayed on the sidelines as Wade, two years his junior, was preferred.

"It's funny how it works. I came over here and he went to NSW, and now we're both going pretty well and trying to fight it out for some spots," Wade said. "Selectors decided to go with 'Nevvy' [for the Ashes], and there's not a lot of argument from my point of view. He had a terrific year."

While Wade, 27, had a very good year in the Sheffield Shield with bat (572 runs at 57.2), gloves (35 dismissals) and captaincy (Victoria won the title), Nevill's was superior in batting at least, with a double-century fuelling a season record of 764 runs at 76.4.

Wade's 12-month stint at Australia's preferred wicketkeeper leading up to the 2013 Ashes series is not widely lauded, mainly because his best moments with bat and, especially, gloves came in overseas tours. The left-hander was the only Australian to score a century in the 2012 series in the West Indies, and while not as natural a gloveman as some of his peers was generally proud of his work behind the stumps.

The turning point for Wade, then 24, was arguably when he dropped South Africa's Faf du Plessis standing up the stumps in Adelaide, in a match in which the visitors salvaged a draw and went on to win in Perth to claim the series. From there the quality of his glovework declined in the home series against Sri Lanka. The situation came to a head on the disastrous 2013 tour on India, which culminated in not only Mickey Arthur being turfed as coach but Wade as wicketkeeper as selectors returned to Haddin.

In retrospect, Wade admits he did not cope well with the pressure of being Australia's preferred gloveman across all three formats, mainly because it led him to over-train and allow bad habits to be ingrained.

"It's very rare that a wicketkeeper, at least in the past 10 years, has come into the team and pretty much from the moment he got the opportunity to keep in one-day cricket has gone straight in to play Test cricket," he said.

"There's no secret, and I've openly admitted, that in the six-month period [before I was dropped] my technique was out of whack and I wasn't keeping my best, and obviously at that stage a new coach came in . . . but all I could do was go back to Victoria and improve. It took me probably six months to get exactly the technique I had before that setback and to be keeping really well, to the standard I wanted to keep to."

Sympathy for Wade during this period was not widespread given the ferocious on-field approach learnt from playing football which, he admits, makes him "one of those blokes that you love to play with but hate playing against".

"I'm certainly not the most liked player in the competition, but I never set out to be," he said.

"I'm a massive believer in whatever happens on the field stays on the field, but I certainly think from where it was when I started to where it is now that it's turned around a lot. There's [now] a lot more focus on what people are saying on the field rather that what people are doing . . . and I've had to change with how it's changed in the game. At state level especially the clamps are on a little bit more so I've got to roll with the times.

"I hope that they [opponents] respect me, but I don't care if they don't like me too much."

Selectors thoughts in regard to the one-day wicketkeeping berth were seemingly betrayed last November when they plumped for Wade, despite a lean Matador Cup with the bat.

While Australia boasts many fine glovemen, most of them are better suited with bat to first-class matches, in terms of their strike rates. Arguably the closest contender to Wade for the one-day slot in terms of batting is Tasmania's Ben Dunk, but he generally does not take the gloves. Furthermore, Wade has the advantage of being able to bat anywhere in the top eight.

Wade, whose improved glovework was reflected in him last season snaring six stumpings, said he was hopeful of persuading selectors to give him the first chance at being Haddin's one-day successor through his performances for Australia A in the tour of India, in time for him to return for the post-Ashes limited-overs series in England.

"I feel like my performances have done enough to at least give me a chance, unless something drastic happens in the next little bit," he said. "Now, I feel if I get my chance I'm ready to take it."