New foes await Australia's experienced Test debutant

An Ashes rivalry that has been largely dominated in recent years by familiar faces and familiar battles will this summer have a first-time showdown after Alex Carey was officially unveiled as Australia's new Test wicketkeeper-batter today in Brisbane.

It is a quirk of modern-day cricket that 30-year-old Carey – with 83 international caps to his name and more than 200 appearances at first-class, List A or T20 level overall – has never played against either of England's veteran quicks, Stuart Broad or James Anderson.

 

Both Broad and Anderson have been out of England's white-ball sides for more than five years, while Carey made his ODI and T20I debuts in early 2018, and neither quick has ever crossed paths with the Australian.

It means the left-hander is yet to face either of the men who have collected 222 Ashes wickets between them (Broad 118, Anderson 104) across the past dozen years, while in more recent times Broad has been at the forefront of a trend among right-arm quicks to come around the wicket to the lefties, which he did most notably to David Warner with remarkable success during the 2019 Ashes.

"That'll be a new experience, and it's something I'm really looking forward to," Carey said of the prospect of facing the highly-experienced pair. "They've got a star-studded line-up and they've been playing some really good Test cricket, but so have we ... you look across our line-up and it's in really good shape.

"I think my game's in pretty good order, and I'm just really excited to prepare ... do my job behind the stumps and provide what I can with the bat, and do it the way that I do it – go out and play with a big smile on my face."

On the flipside of course, Carey represents a new threat to the English pair, who will doubtless be consulting their coaches and teammates for intel on the white-ball star.

As it happens, the South Australian's two most memorable innings have come against England.

At the 2019 World Cup, he channelled Rick McCosker in the semi-final when a savage early blow to the jaw from Jofra Archer left him bloodied and bandaged.

The former Aussie Rules player recovered to make a gutsy 46 and along with Steve Smith (another victim of an Archer bouncer during that northern summer) help Australia post a respectable total of 223 after they had slipped to 3-14 early on.

A year later, Carey this time teamed up with Glenn Maxwell in a remarkable run chase against the Old Enemy at Old Trafford.

The pair came together at 5-73 in the 17th over in pursuit of 303, and both men posted hundreds to get Australia home in one of their finest ODI victories of recent times.

It was Carey's lone international hundred to date and it came against an England attack that included Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, both of whom are in Brisbane as part of the tourists' Ashes squad.

Another English paceman with strong claims for the Gabba, Ollie Robinson, actually played alongside Carey in the Australian's one first-class hit-out with Sussex in September 2019.

In that match, against Middlesex, Robinson took 14 wickets while Carey made 56 and 69no to help Sussex to a seven-wicket win.

It came only a month after Carey was named in the official ICC Team of the ODI World Cup – an honour that signalled a coming of age for the hard-working gloveman, who was elevated to the captaincy of the 50-over side in July as stand-in for the injured Aaron Finch, and duly led Australia to a 2-1 series win over West Indies.

They are all experiences holding the Test newcomer in good stead ahead of his Ashes debut next Wednesday.

Image Id: 44507A1C020045D9BFFEEA3FE50E9A63 Image Caption: Carey bats for Sussex in 2019 // Getty

"That (World Cup experience is) a couple of years ago now and I've been able to stay in that one-day team," he added.

"I guess my short experiences captaining the group in the West Indies (also help), and every time you go out there you feel a little bit more confident.

"To hopefully have close to full stands for an Ashes series on home soil, it's boyhood dreams coming true, and I'm really excited to prepare the best I can to go out and play my role for this team."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Perth Stadium