‘He will not like the Headingley spotlight’: Carey to bear brunt of England fury

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At Headingley, Alex Carey will find himself in the eye of the storm. After stumping Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s, Carey will be braced for everything that the Western Terrace can offer in the next five days.

Justin Langer, the head coach who gave Carey his Test debut in 2021, does not believe that he will relish the extra attention at Headingley. “On the outside he will put on a mask and act like the booing and sledging doesn’t upset him,” Langer says, “but he’s such a good person I know it will deep down.”

Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey is in the eye of the storm over the Jonny Bairstow stumping.Credit: Reuters

Carey can count on Australia’s full support: he is one of the side’s most popular cricketers. He has seamlessly settled into the traditional Australian role of wicketkeeper: as a consummate team man, tenacious and – no matter that he does not have the title of vice captain – an essential confidant for the captain.

“He’s outstanding – character, team-mate, very coachable,” says Jason Gillespie, Carey’s domestic coach with South Australia. “His integrity is top drawer.”

The Australian team’s regard for Carey has been highlighted by how, in the absence of Nathan Lyon, he has been entrusted with leading the team song – Under the Southern Cross – after victories. “Alex Carey is a player you love having in your team,” says Langer.

“He is relentless in his work ethic, is incredibly fit and is as good a person as you could meet. His game keeps reaching new heights and his wicketkeeping has been a testament to this.”

It is not only for his quick thinking to dismiss Bairstow that Carey has been one of the most influential figures in the 2023 Ashes.

So far in the battle of the wicketkeepers, Carey has won resoundingly. Carey has five more runs than Bairstow and is leading 10-7 on catches and 5-1 on stumpings – while missing just two chances compared to Bairstow’s five. Australia have conceded only nine byes to England’s 31.

Yet, had one Australian rules football coach thought better of Carey, the 2023 Ashes could be shaping up very differently.

Aged 18, he was offered a rookie contract with South Australia and a contract with Greater Western Sydney, who were one year away from entering the AFL.

Carey chose Australian rules. His appointment as GWS captain in 2010 (when the Giants were in the NEAFL) seemed to signal another talent that would be lost to professional cricket. Carey “was the type of person your teammates and coaches would pick to go to war with,” former Giant and now Essendon star Dylan Shiel, who lived with Carey, told CricBuzz in 2019.

“He’s a guy who understands how talent can be beaten by hard work and perseverance … He would put himself in positions that his body would take a really hard hit.”

In 2011, aged 20, Carey was released by the Giants; Shiel remembered him in tears. Returning home, Carey initially continued playing Australian rules for Glenelg, but swiftly focused his attention on starting a new career in professional sport.

By 2012, Carey had won a rookie contract as a keeper-batsman with South Australia, but he averaged just 10.2 in three games. By the start of the 2014-15 season, Carey had lost his cricket contract and taken up a full-time job at an accountancy firm.

Carey “had to show a great deal of resilience, through being cut from the AFL and when initially getting back into first class cricket being in and out of the side,” says Grant Francis, senior team coach at Glenelg.

Francis hails Carey’s dedication, both to his own cricket – “he has an unwavering desire to get better” – and the club.

“He would go to the junior presentation nights to hand out trophies, speak with the players and even the parents.”

Aged 24, Carey broke back into the South Australia side – this time, for good.

For his counterpunching left-handed game, and particular relish for any width, Carey’s batting was seen as having some similarities with Australia’s most celebrated wicketkeeper-batsman of all.

Adam Gilchrist struck up a friendship with Carey, and remains an important mentor and confidant. Like Gilchrist, Carey broke into international cricket through the white-ball game, making his debut in 2018. He enjoyed an outstanding World Cup in 2019 and then had a productive stint with Sussex, where one teammate recalls him as “a lovely bloke”.

Just as it had been for Gilchrist, one-day international cricket was the catalyst for Carey to break into the Australian Test team. Both men made their Test debuts in odd circumstances at the Gabba: Gilchrist, in 1999, when he was booed for replacing local favourite Ian Healy; and Carey, 22 years later, after the Tim Paine texting scandal opened up a berth in the side in the 2021-22 Ashes.

If the start of Carey’s Test career was altogether less spectacular than Gilchrist’s, he immediately looked assured, taking eight catches on Test debut. While English cricket continues to debate the balance between keeper-batsmen and batsmen-keepers, in Australia they believe that they have the balance just right.

Alex Carey celebrates the wicket of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s, which plunged the Ashes into chaos.Credit: Reuters

After 22 Tests, Carey averages 34.5 with the bat, with his innings of 48 and 66 not out crucial in Australia winning last month’s world Test championship final. And he has taken 92 per cent of catching chances offered in his career – the third-best of the 14 Test keepers to play five games since 2021.

Through his equable temperament – he has spoken about how his settled family life keeps him grounded – and his position behind the stumps, Carey has acquired the feel of being a senior player as if by osmosis. He has already captained Australia in three ODIs.

Aged 31, he could well deputise for Cummins as Test captain at some point – and even, perhaps, eventually succeed him. The resilience that his former coaches speak of has been a common thread through Carey’s cricket career.

It was detectable in his response to the end of his first sporting career; in how he batted on, unperturbed, after being hit near the jaw by Jofra Archer and bandaged twice in the 2019 World Cup semi-final; and in how he responded to a difficult series with the gloves in Pakistan to thrive in India earlier this year.

Carey will, you suspect, need to summon the same qualities in the next few days.

Telegraph, London

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