Wednesday 15 April 2020 06:06, UK
Who are cricket's emerging talents? Every Wednesday, we will focus on 'the next big thing' in the sport and this week it's Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey...
When Tim Paine's time as Australia Test captain comes to an end there are, according to Shane Warne, a number of candidates in the running to succeed him.
Warne namechecked Steve Smith - although he would not be his choice - Travis Head and Pat Cummins as potential skippers during a chat on a recent Sky Sports Cricket Lockdown Podcast.
But Paine's replacement as wicketkeeper looks much easier to decipher, with Alex Carey - already entrenched as Australia's white-ball gloveman - in pole position to take over behind the sticks.
Adam Gilchrist, a man who performed that role with distinction for the Baggy Greens Test team between 1999 and 2008, has long been an admirer of South Australia star Carey, who is now 28.
He even suggested the left-hander could have played in the 2017-18 Ashes, before Australia instead opted to recall Paine after he had spent seven years in the Test wilderness.
"I've seen a couple of highlights of his and he looks brilliant," Gilchrist said of Carey on Australian radio station SEN in October 2017.
"All word is that is he's a very, very tidy 'keeper and very solid, without being spectacular, in terms of the results he's produced with the bat.
"I believe he's a very hard worker and a top team man, a good guy to have around. I'm starting to think that it's more likely that the selectors might say 'OK, youngster, you're in'."
Carey was not in that time, with the experience of Paine prevailing.
The latter went on to chip in with some valuable knocks as Australia thumped England 4-0 in the Ashes that winter and although his batting average since recall is a fairly unspectacular 30.67, Paine has steered his country through choppy waters since assuming the captaincy after the ball-tampering scandal, when previous incumbent Smith was one of three players to receive bans.
Stripped of some key assets and with the fallout from Cape Town still raw, Paine's team slumped to series defeats to South Africa and Pakistan and then at home to India.
But a turnaround has seen Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand swept aside on Australian turf as well as an Ashes retention by dint of a 2-2 draw in England last summer.
Paine deserves huge credit for lifting his men after their Ben Stokes-inspired agony at Headingley but come the start of the next Ashes series, in late 2021, the Tasmanian will be approaching 37, so there must a be a significant chance Carey has the Test gloves by then.
"Carey is nipping at Paine's heels," Gilchrist said recently. "He's starting to show really promising signs of consistency in his Sheffield Shield cricket.
"His wicketkeeping seems to be extremely consistent, as is Paine's, but Carey is starting to accumulate important runs in first-class cricket, so that is going to really put the pressure on."
Carey's first-class average of 33.75 hardly leaps off the page but it has been steadily increasing over recent Sheffield Shield seasons.
Things did not go so well for him initially when he played three games for South Australia in 2012-13 as a specialist batsman, shortly after transitioning from Australian rules football to cricket.
He averaged just 10.16 and was not seen again in the Sheffield Shield until the backend of 2015-16 when stellar second-XI form saw him recalled by his state, this time as keeper-batsman, and he scored a maiden fifty in that term's Shield final against Victoria.
The 2016-17 campaign was a breakout one for Carey as he scored five fifties in 11 games and took a Shield record 59 dismissals in a single campaign. In 2017-18, he notched his maiden century and added another in 2018-19.
International commitments with Australia's white-ball side have limited his availability but in four first-class fixtures in 2019-20 he struck two tons to take him to a career tally of four centuries in 36 first-class games. Paine has two in 135.
What must also impress Australia's selectors is Carey's grit, which was notable in the way he was able to deal with being cut nastily on the chin by a searing Jofra Archer bouncer in July's World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston and carry on batting as if it had been nothing more than a nick.
He was named as wicketkeeper of the tournament at the World Cup, with his 20 dismissals backed up by 375 runs at 62.50, including three fifties.
Carey crunched a 25-ball fifty against India at The Oval before running out of partners; 71 against New Zealand at Lord's as Australia rallied from 91-5 to post an ultimately winning 243-9 and then a career-best 85 against South Africa before his side slipped to a narrow defeat.
"He is a hybrid of Michael Hussey and Michael Bevan," wrote ex-Australia captain Steve Waugh during the tournament. Praise indeed.
Carey, though, will hope his Test career is more akin to Hussey's (who averaged 51.52 in 79 Tests) then Bevan's (who averaged 29.07 in 18) when he makes what appears an inevitable Test bow.
Cricket could have missed out on Carey with the wicketkeeper once seemingly destined for an Aussie rules career after being named captain of Great Western Sydney Giants in 2010, winning the club's best and fairest trophy, only to be cut before they made their AFL debut in 2012.
"I guess I didn't really have that X-factor as a footballer, the leg speed or the height that was needed," Carey told cricket.com.au in 2017.
It's becoming clear he has cricketing X-factor, though, including in T20 tournaments.
Carey was the second highest-run scorer in the 2017-18 Big Bash League for Adelaide Strikers, behind only Hobart Hurricanes' D'Arcy Short, and he marked his Vitality Blast debut for Sussex last season with a 46-ball 78 in a win over Somerset, having had to fly to Geneva and back due to a visa issue.
Carey is already a vice-captain of Australia's white-ball sides and Paine recently mentioned his fellow gloveman among the contenders to replace him as Test skipper. It is not inconceivable to think the Baggy Greens will have a keeper as captain for a long time to come.
