Carey motors along as Australia’s silent winner as he collected his third Player of the Match award in his last 11 Tests.
Carey motors along as he keeps on keeping on as Australia’s quiet achiever.
For wicketkeeper-batters, these past few weeks have been significant. Jamie Smith has amassed 272 runs in England’s defeat to India at Edgbaston in recent days. Rishabh Pant scored two exciting hundreds in the opening Test of that series. Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who can take the gloves even though he wasn’t on this particular occasion against Zimbabwe, rang up a century on his Test debut at Bulawayo, which is closer to Broadway.
Alex Carey, meanwhile, has played a key role in two Australian triumphs in the Caribbean. After scoring 93 runs in two innings in Grenada, he won Player of the Match for the third time in Test cricket.
His series-winning undefeated 98 against New Zealand was the first of those three match awards, which have all occurred in the past 16 months. In the past, given his subsequent success, there had been a light-hearted speculation that his fall in a hotel pool in Karachi during the 2022 tour of Pakistan marked a turning point.
He has later acknowledged that the consequences of Jonny Bairstow’s stumping at Lord’s affected him more than he initially acknowledged, but he is currently in the prime of his career after his form declined during the 2023 Ashes. His career-best score of 156 in Sri Lanka was part of his 2025 average of 62.00 in first-class cricket and 56.87 in Test matches.
“The wickets have been challenging,” Carey said at the presentation. “They have been a lot of fun to play on. Contributing to your team is what you always want to do. To be able to do that and win a series for Australia is fantastic.”
In recent weeks, there have been a few slip-ups, including a pair of dropped catches and the missed reverse sweep against Keshav Maharaj in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, which caused Australia to collapse. One was in Barbados’ first innings, and the other was against South Africa. His decision to dismiss Shai Hope during the second innings of that match, however, served as a reminder of the wicketkeeper he has developed into and the typically well-considered aggression that characterises his batting.
He made a little technical adjustment last winter, standing with his hands raised as he gets ready to face, which has corresponded with the improvement in his hitting form. Prior to the second Test, Carey stated, “I won’t say it will last forever, but at the moment it feels quite good in the stance.”
He also spoke on his approach to the crease, which centres on attempting to block out the scoreboard from his mind. This series has been characterised by his early stroke-play’s confidence and precision.
Since making his hurried debut for the 2021–22 Ashes when Tim Paine resigned just before the series, Carey has not missed a Test. He is now the side’s pivot, having earned 41 caps. When Nathan Lyon assigned him the team song duties early in this series, it highlighted his position among the squad.
“He’s about four or five years into his Test career [and] I think in the last year or so it’s probably been his most prolific,” Cummins said. “He looks really settled. Any opposition that has a No. 7 – it’s normally a keeper – [who] walks in and you know they’re in good form, they can move the game quickly, they’re some of the scariest players. I feel really lucky that we’ve got Kez in our side that does that.”