Matthew Wade to play for Tasmania against NSW in Sheffield Shield

Wade just finished his commitments with Australia's Twenty20 outfit which was knocked out of the World Cup.

Captain Jordan Silk, who was tight-lipped about who Wade would replace, said it was great to have the Australian representative back earlier than expected.

"Any time you get a player back of his calibre is always nice for our group," he said.

"Particularly for our batting line-up, it just adds that bit of experience.

"We've seen what he's been able to do for Tassie over the past four or five years - averaging 50 plus. It's an astonishing effort on this wicket."

Silk looks forward to having Wade's wisdom to draw on and said Tassie was a scarier proposition with him in the team.

He said Wade had provided great leadership since joining the Tigers five years ago.

"He's super hungry to win games for Tasmania," the skipper said.

"I haven't actually captained him in a Sheffield Shield game so that'll be interesting - I'm sure he'll be throwing ideas at me left, right and centre.

"It's such a blessing to have someone like that around our group."

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The Tigers have started their Sheffield Shield season with a loss, win and draw.

NSW have yet to register a victory and are sitting on the bottom of the table.

Silk is pleased to be playing the Blues on home soil.

"I think it's been a couple of years since we've played them down here, I think we played the one game against them at the SCG last year so it's good to get them back down in our conditions," he said.

"We've had quite a bit of success against them over the past few years down here in particular."

Silk also provided an update on speedster Billy Stanlake who has been recovering from a back injury.

"He's looking good, I had a chat to him yesterday and he's maybe a week away from being off the long runs," he said.

"Hurricanes fans should be getting pretty excited that Billy's on the path to hopefully being available for the start of that season.

"That's exciting for him as it's been a long time coming, I'm excited to connect with him post that BBL period in Tigers colours."

The match starts at 10.30am on Saturday at Bellerive Oval.

TIGERS SQUAD

Jackson Bird, Jake Doran, Jarrod Freeman, Caleb Jewell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Tim Paine, Sam Rainbird, Peter Siddle, Jordan Silk (c), Matthew Wade, Tim Ward, Beau Webster

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