Cricket Australia’s chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns says former Test wicket-keeper Matthew Wade must bat higher up the order in four-day cricket if he’s to be considered for a recall to the national team.

On Wednesday, Cricket Australia announced a 13-man squad for the upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka which gets underway on January 24 at The Gabba.

Queensland pair Matthew Renshaw and Joe Burns and uncapped Victorian Will Pucovski each earned call-ups, after selectors dropped West Australian pair Shaun and Mitch Marsh as well as Victorians Peter Handscomb and Aaron Finch.

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But once again there was no call-up for this season’s leading Sheffield Shield run-scorer Wade, who has hit 571 runs at 63.44 in six matches for Tasmania.

Wade, who has a Test average of 28.58 with two centuries, was dropped for Tim Paine following a lean series against Bangladesh in September 2017. Paine has since become captain, following the ball-tampering scandal which saw Steve Smith stand down and later receive a one-year ban.

Hohns said for Wade to be considered as a specialist batsman, he would need to move up the Tasmanian batting order where he’s mixed No 5 and No 6.

“It’s fantastic that he’s scoring a lot of runs,” said Hohns of Wade.

“It wasn’t long ago that he was in our Test squad, he struggled and we obviously dropped him.

“He was wicket-keeping at that stage, he’s playing as a wicket-keeper batsman for Tasmania and it just so happens we have a wicket-keeper batsman in our Test match side right now and that is Tim Paine, who is the captain.

“As I suggested, it’s great to see Matthew scoring some runs. But if Matthew wants to be considered as a straight out batsman, it would be nice to see him batting up a little higher for Tasmania and that conversation has been had.”

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Pucovski's double century 1:48

But making the decision all the more perplexing is that Renshaw, who has a Test 184 opening the batting, has just 199 runs at 19.90 in six matches for Queensland in 2018/19.

Hohns explained that despite the 22-year-old’s recent struggles, he was still viewed as a “highly regarded” young player and pointed to his overall record in Australia and in England’s County competition as evidence.

“Matt Renshaw is a very, very highly regarded young player,” Hohns said.

“We know he can score a lot of runs. He’s done that in Test cricket, he’s scored a lot of runs in England when he went over there playing County cricket and, of course, with the Ashes in mind we thought it was an appropriate time now to get him back and in and around the group with a view of looking forward.”