Carey reveals keeping heroics 'too dangerous' to practice

Alex Carey's performance behind the stumps in Brisbane has been hailed as one of the great Ashes wicketkeeping efforts.

But one of the Australian team's most fastidious trainers revealed the most eye-catching aspect of his star turn with the gloves – standing up to the stumps to Scott Boland and Michael Neser – is not something he has been bold enough to attempt away from the heat of battle.

With the Aussies not picking Nathan Lyon for the second NRMA Insurance Test – the first time Carey has played a home Test without the off-spinner – the 34-year-old might have been forgiven for thinking he would spend the bulk of his time in the field standing back to their five-pronged seam attack.

Instead he spent much of the match keeping up to Boland and Neser in a bid to keep England's batters in their crease and allow the two right-armers to hit their natural length.

Brad Haddin, the former Test keeper speaking on Triple M, said he had not seen a "better or braver" performance behind the pegs than Carey's.

"Pretty proud of my efforts out there," Carey told cricket.com.au. "Opportunities to go up to the stumps against some really good bowling, and the boys were able to beat the bat.

"I thought I did a good job for the team. I also thought the bowlers did an amazing job to create those chances. As a group, that's a pretty solid effort."

Carey spends considerable time working on his glovework at training and has a familiar routine with fielding coach Andre Borovec, a former first-grade gloveman for Geelong. Borovec often wields a bat with rubber tags on it while a thrower chucks balls to Carey in an effort to prepare for little edges while up to the stumps.

But the South Australian suggested he was relying mostly on instinct when standing up to Neser and Boland this week.

"I don't practice up to the stumps against fast bowling. I think that probably can be a little bit dangerous at times," he said.

"You work on the fundamentals of the game and wicketkeeping – that's keeping up to the stumps to Nathan Lyon a lot.

"But (also) doing my drills in the nets with a nick bat, getting throws, trying to get in good positions. And then when you're in a game of cricket, I feel like your instincts take over most of the time.

"So trusting the positions that I'm in and then hoping that my instincts takes over and I get the right position to hang on to them. There's a lot of work that goes into it.

"But specifically to fast bowling, I don't practice keeping up to the stumps."

Carey finished with seven catches for the Test, with his day-one grab off Gus Atkinson more akin to a diving mark from the Australian rules football code he initially pursed a career in.

A miscommunication with Marnus Labuschagne saw both players try to take the catch and it was fortunate their collision did not result in an injury. The pair ended up cheek to cheek.

"When (Labuschagne) didn't catch it, and he saw my face, he knew that everything was okay, so he was pretty relieved," said the South Australian.

Carey's crowning moment came on the final day when he pouched a tremendous grab up to the stumps off Ben Stokes to all but end any hope of a comeback England win.

It capped one of the better Australian fielding efforts of recent times. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne also reeled in memorable snares, while Josh Inglis pulled off a match-turning direct-hit run out to remove Stokes in the first innings.

"I thought our fielding on the whole was amazing. You look back at the run out for Inglis back in that little period (to get the) momentum going our way. Smudge was unbelievable today, Marnus' catch," said Carey.

"There's so many little moments that I thought we did really well as a bowling, batting and fielding group."

Speaking to reporters after the eight-wicket win, Smith added of Carey, whose 63 helped underpin Australia's first-innings tally of 511: "I thought he batted beautifully too.

"But that performance behind the stumps was something else.

"'Nes' was getting the ball up around 137,138 (kph) at times, Boland similar. He just gets in behind it. He finds a way to just get the ball in his hands. It hits the batter's pads and it ends up in his hands somehow.

"He works exceptionally hard. He's as fit as anyone. He just turns up day in, day out, rarely makes a mistake and pulls off unbelievable catches.

"When I was at slip when he was up to the stumps, I was so wide just because of how much he covers. He just gets his hands out there. It's like he knows they're going to nick it almost at times, and gets his hands out there.

"That keeping performance was as good as I've seen."

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (second Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood