Shane Warne has backed under pressure wicketkeeper Brad Haddin to retain his spot as Australia's No.1 keeper but also said Victoria gloveman Matthew Wade is the man to replace him when the time comes.
In his past four Tests Haddin has scored just 53 runs at 10.6 and he has managed only two half-centuries in his past 17 innings, a period in which he has scored 335 runs at 19.71.
But having not scored a Test century since making 136 in the Ashes opener at the Gabba in November 2010, Haddin has also copped his share of criticism for the rash manner of some of his dismissals at very inopportune times.
This was never more evident than his wild swipe outside off stump in Cape Town in November that saw him out for a duck as Australia was eventually dismissed for just 47 and went down by eight wickets having gone from leading by 188 on the first innings to setting a target of only 236.
Haddin's work behind the stumps has also been suspect at times recently but in his favour has been the fact that his heir apparent, Tasmanian blaster Tim Paine, has been sidelined for months by a finger injury that has twice required surgery and ruled him out for the entire summer.
But Wade, who has already played two T20 Internationals for Australia and scored 53 for Australia A against New Zealand in November, has scored 316 runs at 63.2 in the Sheffield Shield, with one century and a fifty and also has 178 runs with a top score of 120 in the Ryobi Cup.
Regardless, Warne said before Melbourne Stars training at the MCG on Wednesday morning that he believes Haddin deserves to be given more time to find his way out of his current slump.
"I think Brad Haddin has been a wonderful player for Australia and cricket is a performance-based game, if you perform you play and if you don't perform you shouldn't play, that's the way sport is," Warne said.
"If you're not doing your job well, get someone else to do it."
"With Brad Haddin, I think he's doing a good job and hopefully he can find some form because he's a wonderful player."
While Warne thinks Haddin still merits his place in the Test team, he is also a huge fan of his Stars team-mate Wade.
"Re Matthew Wade, if his opportunity comes I think he's ready to play," he added.
"I think he's definitely the next keeper after Brad Haddin, whenever Brad Haddin's time is up."
"Hopefully he (Haddin) makes a big hundred in Adelaide and he's fine, he can play for another fair bit of time."
"But if things panned out and the selectors decided to go another way then Matthew Wade would 100 percent do a great job in all forms of the game and he's ready to go."