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Carey leapfrogs Nevill in Ashes race

26th June, 2017
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Is Peter Nevill Australia's best keeper? Or has he now dropped to third? (AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS)
Expert
26th June, 2017
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Less than a year ago Peter Nevill shaped as Australia’s long-term Test wicketkeeper, but now he seems to have tumbled down the pecking order ahead of this summer’s Ashes.

Nevill’s stocks have nosedived after being dumped from Cricket Australia’s contract list in favour of Test and ODI gloveman Matt Wade and then being overlooked for next month’s Australia A series for upcoming keeper Alex Carey.

This gives the impression Nevill may well be third in line for the Test keeping spot behind Wade and 25-year-old Carey, who is fresh from a breakout Sheffield Shield season.

Australia's wicketkeeper Peter Nevill arrives for training

(AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS)

The Redbacks ‘keeper became just the fourth player in the competition’s history to pass 500 runs and 50 catches in a season en route to breaking the all-time dismissals record with 59.

Not only was he clean and athletic behind the stumps, whether standing back to the quicks or up to the spinners, but Carey also showed a preparedness to scrap his way to tough runs in the middle order.

Carey has generous talent with the blade, having played his first three Shield matches as an opening batsman. Yet he still owns a modest first-class record of 794 runs at 26, with no centuries.

Those numbers are particularly unflattering when compared to the record of Nevill, who has piled up 4264 runs at 40, with nine tons. The former Test keeper, who was dropped for Wade last summer, rebounded from his axing with a dominant Shield campaign in which he cracked 625 runs at 57, including three tons.

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It wasn’t a surprise to see Nevill left off the Cricket Australia contract list, considering that the list often only contains one wicketkeeper. But Nevill must have been concerned when he was absent from the Australia A squad for the tour of South Africa, which kicks off two weeks from now with a pair of four-day matches followed by five 50-over games.

Carey is expected to keep wicket in each of those seven fixtures as the only gloveman picked for the tour. If Nevill was being seriously considered for the Ashes it would be strange for him to be left out of such a valuable winter tune-up against strong opposition.

The selection of Carey seems to be a sign that Australia are continuing to plump for youth after regenerating their Test line-up last summer. That overhaul saw Australia dump five players – Nevill, Joe Burns, Adam Voges, Callum Ferguson and Joe Mennie – after their humiliating loss to South Africa in the second Test at Hobart.

Rather than picking veteran domestic batsmen, as they had done so often over the previous decade, Australia introduced youngsters Matt Renshaw (20 years old), Nic Maddinson (24) and Peter Handscomb (25).

Peter Nevill takes off for a run

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Handscomb and Renshaw have enjoyed generous Test success, which may well have convinced the selectors to continue to invest in youth. Given that he will be 32 years old by the time the Ashes starts, Nevill’s age may well count against him.

That’s not to suggest his Test career is over. But if the much younger Carey has a commanding tour of South Africa he may well push Nevill firmly into third place. Wade will get a chance to cement his Ashes spot on Australia’s upcoming two-Test tour of Bangladesh.

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After initially struggling on his return to the Test team, Wade had a fine Test series in India, during which Australia produced comfortably their best performance in Asia for many years.

That effort will have bought him some time. That same metric appears to be running out for Nevill. Carey has a chance in the coming weeks to push the former Test gloveman deep into the shadows.

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