Alex Carey

In the world of cinema, Alex Carey could be the ideal superhero, considering the set of skills he has at his disposal. The man from South Australia was a budding player in Australian Rules Football, having also captained a side in 2010 but his career went downhill over the next couple years. Eventually, he was left out of the side in 2012 which saw him return to his home in South Australia. It's from then that his cricketing career starting to take off.

In his initial cricketing days, Carey was a specialist batsman by design in grade cricket but had a dismal start to his dreams in the new sport. That didn't prevent him from getting a rookie contract for the 2013-14 season with South Australia. It was then that he realized the need for having multiple skills. Carey started to shoulder wicket-keeping duties and slowly got a hang of being a gloveman. This also opened up more opportunities for him to feature in the playing XI. He started batting in the lower middle order.

The 2015-16 season was a stellar one for Carey in Grade cricket and such was his impact that he got a call up for the Sheffield Shield later that season for the final rounds. He managed to catch the eye of the selectors and earned his first senior contract for South Australia for the 2016-17 season. That proved to be the turning point for Carey as he became only the fourth gloveman ever to amass over 500 runs and affect 50 dismissals in a single Sheffield Shield Season.

Australia's recurring problems with the wicket-keeper batsman slot has meant that Carey has been in the selectors' radar since his redemption as a cricketer. With Matthew Wade losing his form, it did seem like Carey would be a darkhorse for the 2017-18 Ashes squad. However, it was Tim Paine who got the nod in a stunning selection that nevertheless paid dividends for Australia in the series. Carey hasn't let any of this affect him and continues to make runs in Sheffield Shield apart from being a terrific wicket-keeper.

The hard work paid off for him when he got picked up as Australia's limited-overs wicket-keeper in the latter half of 2018. With Matthew Wade out of tough, Carey quickly became Australia’s first choice keeper in the white-ball formats. He had a good run in the 2019 Cricket World Cup and set the record for the most catches by a wicket-keeper in a single edition of a World Cup with 18 catches. Subsequently Carey was even named the vice-captain of Australia’s ODI side and led Australia to victory against West Indies in Aaron Finch’s absence. He scored his maiden ODI hundred against England in 2020.

With Tim Paine stepping down, Carey quickly found himself thrust into the Test team as well and he received his Baggy Green during the first Test of the 2021-22 Ashes. His maiden Test century came in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in 2022 and he became the first Australian wicket-keeper to score a century after Brad Haddin in 2013.

Carey continued to don the gloves for Australia across formats and was named in Australia’s 2023 Cricket World Cup squad. However, after a string of poor scores with the bat, Carey was dropped midway through the tournament in favor of Josh Inglis. Carey, however, held on to his spot in the Test squad during the following Australian summer.

Carey was part of the XI that triumphed over India in the World Test Championship final in 2023, getting valuable contributions in both innings. A couple of months later, Carey found himself in the news for the ‘controversial’ run out of Jonny Bairstow, where he nonchalantly threw the ball back at the stumps after Bairstow walked out of his crease after ducking a bouncer, thinking the ball was dead. That run out created quite a stir in the Lords Test match, and went down as one of the most iconic moments in the Ashes rivalry.

Carey was instrumental in a Test against New Zealand as well a few months later, as he starred with 98* to help Australia chase a tricky total of 279 in swinging conditions. The southpaw though has now become only a Test match specialist for Australia, with Josh Inglis taking over wicketkeeping duties in limited overs cricket.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan and Anurag Hegde