NEWS
Follow UsCarey has made a superb return to Australia’s ODI set-up in the absence of Inglis who is currently out because of a quad injury. The latter has been Australia’s wicketkeeper since the 2023 ODI World Cup before an injury re-opened the gates for Carey.
Carey, 33, has batted twice in the ongoing ODI series against England and managed scores of 74 off 67 and 77* off 65. Australia now have a headache to deal with ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
"It's always a good problem to have when you've got people competing for spots within your team. Unfortunately, Josh was injured in the T20 series, and Alex has jumped into that spot and done incredibly well. So as I said, it's always a good problem to have,” said head coach Andrew McDonald.
"It's always something we will consider. If you think back sort of 12 months ago, we had Ingo and Kez in the same team. So it's quite possible, and the way that Alex is batting is very impressive. Summing up the situation, navigating going through the middle against spin. He's a quality player. He's played a lot of international cricket, so the way he's performing isn't a surprise to us."
Australia will also find it difficult to slot in all three fast-bowling all-rounders - Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie and Marcus Stoinis - into the same XI. Adam Zampa missed the third ODI, which Australia lost by 46 runs (DLS) due to illness and that allowed Hardie to get some game time. The 25-year-old smashed 44 off 26 and then bowled five overs for 26 runs.
"Aaron Hardie called into the team late, got some critical death hitting there to get us up to a total. He was definitely impressive today,” said McDonald.
“It's something we've discussed over a period of time, and we're on the record in saying, leading to the last World Cup, we wanted to have three distinct ways of playing, and one of those was with the eighth batter. So we've done that previously. The allrounders aren't always available and fit, so therefore sometimes that team's not on the table.
"But we feel as though with the allrounders we've got with Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, you throw Marcus Stoinis also into that who's not here, Will Sutherland's been exposed across the journey as well. So you start to work through that. Matthew Short is an allrounder in his own right as well, along with Glenn Maxwell. So we've got options to be able to structure up that way. We do like to lean towards the three quicks with Adam Zampa, but clearly, that's another way of playing."
Australia are still leading the five-match series 2-1 and McDonald said both Zampa and Travis Head will be back for the last two ODIs. “It's always a different team when Zampa is not there, an incredible performer for us over a long period of time.
“It was a late decision to leave him out. Clearly, we've had a little bit of illness in the camp, and that's been well documented. Unfortunately, he was the latest casualty. (Head) should be right for the next game. I won't go into that any further, but he should be ready to go."
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