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Opinion
Stuart Broad was half right when he sledged Alex Carey by saying the controversial Jonny Bairstow stumping incident is all he’d be remembered for.
England’s now-retired agent provocateur was clearly trying to get under Carey’s skin in the immediate aftermath of the flashpoint incident in the second Test at Lord’s.
Carey will not be defined by that dismissal but whether he likes it or not, it will follow him for the rest of his career, particularly in times when his form is not up to scratch.
The 32-year-old wicketkeeper is in the middle of one such slump and now has to put up with the added sideshow of the Bairstow incident being blamed for a drop in his usual high standards.
His predecessor, former Australia captain Tim Paine, gave the theory air time, literally, earlier this week when he said on Tasmania’s SEN breakfast show that Carey had not been the same player since the avalanche of drama which engulfed him after he took advantage of Bairstow’s carelessness in a legitimate yet highly controversial dismissal.
“He’s been struggling, there’s no doubt about that,” Paine said on SEN. “It looks (like) a mindset thing. We know how dangerous Alex can be. I don’t think he’s looked the same since the Jonny Bairstow stumping.
“Whether that’s had an effect on him mentally because there was no doubt he copped an absolute barrel over there from everyone. I know it was a really difficult time for him and his family – he couldn’t go out for a coffee without copping abuse.
“I don’t know if it’s rattled him or if his confidence has dropped off since, but certainly his batting – barring one game in South Africa – he hasn’t looked the same.
Jonny Bairstow looks frustrated after being dismissed by Alex Carey. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
“And I say that, doesn’t look the same, with his body language and his intent, his intent to go out and take the game on from the start.”
Paine is right in that Carey’s glovework has remained strong, but his struggles with the bat are an issue that Australia cannot afford at the World Cup, particularly after their woeful six-wicket loss to open their campaign against India.
Heading into Thursday’s second match against South Africa at Lucknow, the heat is on all the Aussies to bounce back, particularly Carey after he was dismissed for a duck after two quick wickets to trigger a middle-order collapse.
Veteran teammate Glenn Maxwell did the honourable thing by sticking up for Carey at his media conference on Tuesday, claiming “there’s been enough water under the bridge” since the Bairstow brouhaha and that the Aussie keeper was unlucky to get out because his bat got caught behind his pads.
Alex Carey. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
But unfortunately for Carey, the second-ball dismissal continued a run of low scores since his quick thinking left Bairstow red with rage.
In his next five innings in the final three Ashes Tests, he was out for 8, 5, 20, 20 and 28.
On the recent white-ball tour of South Africa, he smacked 99 in a losing effort at Centurion but added 3, 6, 12 and 2 in the other ODI matches on tour before making just 14 and 11 in the warm-up matches in India before the World Cup.
Like most of Australia’s middle-order batting options, Carey prefers to take more than a few overs to settle before launching rather than going hard from the get-go like power hitters from other nations who come in for the closing overs.
Alex Carey. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
His strike rate of 91.58 in 2023 is actually his second-best calendar year effort in his 72-game ODI career but his average of 20.55 is by far his worst.
For a team that looks intent on playing four frontline specialist bowlers, Australia can’t afford to carry Carey in the middle order if he can’t contribute with the bat.
Western Australia keeper Josh Inglis is at the ready to step in if Carey’s doldrums continue but he has a modest record in an albeit small sample size of eight ODIs (143 runs at 17.87 with a 93.46 strike rate and top score of 50) and has thus far looked more suited to the T20 format.
Carey has occasionally joked politely about the Bairstow incident whenever it has been raised in interviews since the Ashes furore died down and he’s insisted that it’s all in the past.
Josh Inglis. (Photo by Daniel Pockett – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
It’s only natural for the unprecedented tumult from an incident like that to linger in your subconscious.
You only have to mention names of players from yesteryear like Trevor Chappell, Greg Dyer, Scott Muller and Cameron Bancroft and cricket fans know what you’re referring to as the standout controversial moment of their career. And the player in question certainly doesn’t need the reminder.
But it’s not like he is going to come out and say “yes it’s affecting me still” or “yeah I’m glad I did it and the hypocritical Poms can shove their spirit of cricket”.
The conundrum for Carey is that no matter what he says or doesn’t say it will keep popping up in the news cycle unless he can silence the external noise with a return to form.
And if the Australian team remains in a funk during a World Cup, a scapegoat will be sacrificed at the selection table sooner rather than later.