OPINION
Follow UsAt the post-match presentation, when asked about the controversial r̶u̶n̶ o̶u̶t̶ stumping of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes said that if the shoe was on the other foot, he would have thought about the spirit of the game.
"Would I want to potentially win a game with something like that happening… it would be no,” he later said in the press conference.
Luckily, there’s a good chance Stokes will not find himself in such a situation in this Ashes. For if the first two Tests are any evidence, then Bairstow will end up missing the target should he find himself in a similar situation and attempt to sneakily run the striker out.
Alex Carey might have turned into England’s public enemy No.1 overnight — for merely playing by the rules — but the cold, hard fact is that he is everything that Stokes’ side currently lack: a consistent, dependable gloveman capable of positively influencing the contest from behind the wickets.
Australia, across the first two Tests, have done plenty of things better than England, but, in many ways, the biggest differentiator between the two sides has been the quality of the keeping.
Considering that, it was in a way poetic that Carey delivered the telling blow of the second Test — and potentially the series — by stumping his counterpart by using his smarts and skills.
In the last eight hours alone, the name ‘Alex Carey’ has probably been tweeted more times than it was in the previous eight months. For simply following the rules, Carey has been called names, vilified, character-assasinated and termed a ‘cheat’. His actions — which were well within the law — even rattled some of the MCC members.
It’s a shame because, in the midst of all this social media nonsense, what has not got enough appreciation is the sharpness and skill required to pull off such a stumping.
Here was a man who was switched on and clearly observed a pattern in the lead-up to the dismissal — of Bairstow leaving the crease early. The host broadcaster Sky, minutes after Bairstow’s dismissal, showed a montage of the batter wandering off his crease prematurely throughout his innings.
Carey could easily have not noticed it or not been proactive, but he observed and showed elite game awareness, pouncing at the perfect moment.
As Ravichandran Ashwin wrote in his tweet, “We must applaud the game smarts of the individual rather than skewing it towards unfair play or spirit of the game.”
Curiously enough, the Bairstow dismissal was the second time on the day Carey showed excellent game awareness. Roughly 30 minutes prior to that, he took an outstanding one-handed grab to dismiss the set, Ben Duckett.
The catch in itself was exceptional — he was at full stretch — but Carey’s anticipation turned what would have been a half-chance into a full chance. Knowing Hazlewood was bowling bumpers to the left-handed Duckett from over the wicket, he stationed himself leg-side of the batter (and the ball), predicting the likely trajectory of a potential mishit.
It turned out to be a Nostradamus’esque move as Duckett gloved one exactly where Carey was stood.
On the day, he created something out of nothing. Twice.
A wicket-keeper’s job, however, much like that of a goalkeeper, is thankless. Your mistakes get amplified, while the hype of your heroics — such as a fine diving catch — die soon.
Any side in the world would much rather have a wicket-keeper that takes 10/10 regulation catches and doesn’t do anything spectacular than someone who pulls off the occasional blinder but is unreliable behind the wickets. Doing the basics right is everything.
That way, Carey has been pretty much flawless in this series. He’s taken 10 catches in total, gobbling up regulation and semi-difficult catches masterfully, and has only spilled two, both half-chances diving to his right.
But forget the catches, he’s made some remarkably tricky stumpings look easy (the Bairstow one aside, that is). Across the first three innings of this series, Carey inflicted four stumpings in total (all off Lyon), and every single stumping came at a crucial juncture: the Bairstow one (at Edgbaston) put an end to a 121-run stand; the Moeen one nipped a dangerous stand in its bud; the Root one helped Australia edge ahead in the third innings; meanwhile the Crawley one in the first innings at Lord’s ended a 91-run opening stand.
Australia could easily be looking at a 1-1 or 0-2 scoreline had Carey even botched one of the above-mentioned stumpings. But he didn’t, and, due to that, they are where they are.
Compare that to England, who have paid the price for not having a reliable gloveman.
At Edgbaston, Bairstow missed a stumping of Green when he was on 0; that cost England 38 runs. He dropped Carey on 26 in the first innings, and the wicket-keeper went on to add 40 more runs. Both were regulation chances you expect a specialist wicket-keeper to take at the Test level.
There were no such regulation drops from Bairstow at Lord’s, but he did concede 26 byes in total. In comparison, Carey only conceded 9; none in the second innings, where Bairstow gave away 14 byes. Small margins, but they make a big difference in close games.
We’ve showered praise on Carey’s keeping, but his contribution with the bat in hand has been equally impressive and invaluable.
The raw figures say that he’s averaged only 32.25 — which, by the way, is more than acceptable for a solid gloveman — but every time he’s walked in, Carey has looked assured, brought a sense of calm and has stitched a partnership to stop England gaining momentum.
At Edgbaston in the first innings, walking in at 220/5, he struck 66 in his first dig of the series and stitched an invaluable 118-run stand with Khawaja. He perished at the wrong time in the second innings but did his part in taking the game deep — when he departed, the target was down to 54.
At Lord’s, he only managed a pair of 20s, but in either innings, he played his part in temporarily arresting a major collapse.
That he’s the only batter in this Ashes — across both sides — to cross the 20-run mark in every innings is a testament to his consistency and how comfortable he’s looked generally.
He’s played his part in grinding the England bowlers too, averaging 66 balls per dismissal. That, for reference, is better than Bairstow, Brook, Crawley and Pope. And yes, he’s nearly averaged the same as Brook and has fared better with the bat than Crawley, Pope and Bairstow.
Five months ago, Carey endured a couple of months of hell as a batter in India — averaging 9.33 in 4 Tests, digging his own grave by overdoing the reverse sweep — but more than that experience itself, what was always going to define his future was how he would come out of it.
Early days, but Carey seems to have emerged on the other side of the India tour not just as a better batter but a better keeper too.
The last time Australia won the Ashes in England, they had at No.7 a left-handed wicket-keeper batter playing for the first time in England.
Will history repeat itself?
