Carey keeps his focus despite sudden Test opening

When Alex Carey began this morning's preparations for the final phase of his Marsh Sheffield Shield encounter with Queensland, his single focus – as always – was the red ball being flung repeatedly at him to ensure his feet were nimble and mind sharp before play resumed.

But less than an hour before the one-sided game restarted, news filtered through that might have tempted him to lift his vision from the catching drills he so assiduously performs and shift to the very real prospect of a Baggy Green cap in the first Vodafone Ashes Test just 12 days away.

Tim Paine's unforeseen decision to step away from cricket for the foreseeable future meant the position of Test keeper was suddenly vacant and, as one of two glovemen named in the Australia A squad that will be part of the Ashes preparations, Carey was squarely in the frame for a Test debut.

As such, he could have been excused if his mind wandered from the task at hand – the last rites of a Shield game all-but done in Queensland's favour – and fixed on his prospects for day one of Test cricket's oldest rivalry, which will reconvene at the Gabba on December 8.

But the 30-year-old is too consummate a professional, too committed a team man to allow personal opportunity to overshadow the collective need.

And when the second ball of the morning's play grazed the edge of Bulls opener Bryce Street's usually broad bat, Carey moved smartly to his left and pouched the chance in front of first slip.

From that point, Carey's involvement was minimal as Queensland rattled on with the required 81 runs for victory from 16 overs in just over an hour, all for the loss of just one more wicket.

Carey, the experienced white-ball international representative, who earlier this year led Australia to an ODI series win in the West Indies with regular skipper Aaron Finch sidelined through injury, found his toughest task was escaping the media scrum that lay in wait for him at Karen Rolton Oval.

Carey is expected to play in Sunday's Marsh One-Day Cup match between South Australia and Queensland at Adelaide Oval before flying to Brisbane the following day to be part of Australia's Ashes preparations.

He and Josh Inglis have been named in the 11-player Australia A squad to play England Lions in Brisbane while the opening Ashes Test is underway, but national selectors will convene over coming days to decide who fills the vacancy in the Test set-up left by Paine's sudden absence.

"It's obviously between Inglis and Carey, they're the two keepers in the squad," Queensland captain Usman Khawaja, who is also a member of Australia's Test squad, said of the likely scenario at game's end in Adelaide today.

"I don't want to speculate on any one of them because they're both my mates.

Image Id: 56A30D91ED414883BD9E2F97B5119F0F Image Caption: Josh Inglis keeps for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield // Getty

"It's a tough decision the selectors have got to make (but) first and foremost in Test cricket, you pick your best keeper, and both of them are good batsmen.

"It's just going to come down to who the selectors think the best keeper is."

It was unclear which of either Carey or Inglis was destined to take the gloves in that Australia A game scheduled to start on December 9, or whether the keeping duties were to be shared.

But it would now appear to be an academic argument, with one of the pair likely to be drafted in as Paine's replacement with a guarantee to make their Test debut given the absence of a back-up keeper in the 15-man squad.

Inglis has played several senior representative matches in Australia colours, for a Cricket Australia XI against West Indies in 2016 and most recently for Australia A against England A at the MCG last year in a team that included current Test squad members Khawaja, Marcus Harris and Michael Neser.

Carey captained Australia A against India's touring team prior to the start of last summer's Test series and has also kept wicket for the national second XI against India A (in 2018), Pakistan (2019), and for Australia's touring team during a match against Derbyshire during the 2019 Ashes tour.

He was named as Paine's back-up for the proposed Test tour of South Africa earlier this year before the series was postponed due to COVID-19 related security concerns.

While Inglis has played just one Sheffield Shield match this season due to his inclusion as reserve keeper in Australia's recent T20 World Cup triumph in the UAE, he enjoyed a productive stint with Leicestershire in the UK county competition during the southern hemisphere winter.

By contrast, Carey has played five Shield matches for SA this summer for a return of 18 catches and two stumpings although his past five first-class innings have yielded scores of 0, 7, 6, 2 and 3.

"Alex is keeping really well," SA coach and former Test fast bowler Jason Gillespie said today.

"He's probably missed out a few times with the (bat) but he's in a good place with his game.

"He's continually working on his keeping back to the quicks, but also up to the stumps and I know he does a bit of work with Tim Nielsen (SACA High Performance Manager and ex-SA keeper).

"He's got his routines that he's really disciplined with, and he's just catching a lot of cricket balls.

"He's really focused on making sure his footwork is sharp.

"One thing that really stands out is he's very specific with his practice, whether he's preparing for a four-day game or a one-day game – what he's going to be facing out in the middle, he's preparing as specifically as he possibly can."

Australia's newly appointed Test captain Pat Cummins said today it was too early to speculate on Paine's likely replacement for the start of the five-Test Ashes series.

However, he expected he – along with his freshly installed deputy Steve Smith – would be asked for their views before the national selection panel (chair George Bailey, men's team coach Justin Langer and Tony Dodemaide) nominated the new Test keeper.

"I'm sure we'll be canvassed for our thoughts, like they (selectors) have probably canvassed a lot of players and the people around the grounds who know the keepers well," Cummins said.

"I think we've probably got three or four guys who could walk into the team and you know what you're going to get.

"They're going to never let you down.

"It's a selectors' decision, but I'm absolutely comfortable and confident in our options that we have ahead of us."

Vodafone Men's Ashes v England

Tour Matches

Nov 30 – Dec 3: England v England Lions, Brisbane

Dec 1-3: Australian intra-squad match, Brisbane

Dec 9-12: Australia A v England Lions, Brisbane

Tests

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Perth Stadium