Cautious Carey heeds Smith, Kohli's reverse sweep advice

Alex Carey won't put the reverse sweep away for good early in his innings, but he may become more judicious in employing the tactic against spinners.

Once a strength of Carey's against slower bowlers, Australia's wicketkeeper-batter has been dismissed four times playing the shot this year from 17 attempts.

Out lbw trying to reverse sweep Ravindra Jadeja at The Oval last week when he was on 48, Carey revealed on Sunday that he was admonished by both Steve Smith and Virat Kohli over the shot.

It was notable that the 31-year-old did not try to reverse sweep at all in Australia's second innings of the World Test Championship final, when he made an unbeaten 66.

It was a similar story against England in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, where Carey faced 34 balls from Moeen Ali in Australia's first innings.

On that occasion, Carey waited until passing 50 before trying his only reverse sweep of the innings.

Carey said there was no pre-determined plan not to sweep until a certain point of his innings, albeit while being more selective with the shot. 

"There was no need to play that at The Oval in the first innings," Carey said. 

"When you have Virat Kohli and Steve Smith saying, 'what are you doing that for?', you probably listen to them.

"The opportunity I saw after 50 yesterday was (Ben) Duckett came into point and there was no-one boundary-riding out there. 

"I didn't get one away but I probably saw opportunities to score elsewhere."

Carey's decision not to reverse will come as good news to his wife Eloise, who he revealed last year had told him to stop playing the shot.

He said he was handed another gentle reminder after play on Saturday from her about the tactic, doubling down on the feedback from Smith and Kohli last week.

Australia have treated the Edgbaston wicket like a sub-continent one, bowling stump-to-stump lines in England's 8(dec)-393 before Carey hit 66 in Australia's reply of 386.

The only brief period they have been able to get some life out of the wicket was under floodlights and gloomy skies on Sunday between rain showers, leaving England 2-28 in their second innings.

Carey did not anticipate all wickets would be like that through the Ashes series and was hopeful some life still remained at Edgbaston to force a result.

"It will ebb and flow again," Carey said. 

"Usman Khawaja's patience again was evident. The wickets won't always be like this one. 

"But in saying that, there are still opportunities for bowlers to take wickets when you set the right fields and apply enough pressure and hit the length for long enough."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Friday June 16-Tuesday June 20, Edgbaston

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood