Australian one-day vice-captain Alex Carey is embracing skippering Redbacks in rocky period
South Aussie talent Alex Carey talks about embracing his tough initiation as Redbacks’ stand-in captain, how Jamie Siddons will return as coach, and why Steve Smith isn’t undermining Tim Paine.
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Alex Carey has opened up on his Trevor Hohns-endorsed ascension as South Australian skipper, coach Jamie Siddons’ return, and why Steve Smith isn’t upstaging Test boss Tim Paine.
When national selection boss Hohns observed during the 2019 Ashes series that Carey needed state leadership exposure, he couldn’t have envisaged how it would unfold.
Carey will command a Redbacks side on an 18-game winless Sheffield Shield streak against Tasmania on Saturday.
Siddons is absent for a second match due to personal reasons.
“I am close with Jamie and spoke to him on Thursday, he is still following the group really closely and just taking some time off in Adelaide to get things right,” said Carey, who posted a career-high 143 in his maiden first-class outing as captain against Western Australia in Perth last week.
“I have no doubt he will come back in and take over the group again.
“In the short term Greg Blewett has been fantastic as stand-in coach.”
The Redbacks will equal Sheffield Shield’s fourth-longest winless streak without a Hobart victory.
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“We are craving that win, doing everything we can,” Carey said.
“The more days it goes by it plays in the media and on your mind.
“For me it is keep performing, that is one form of leadership, help us win a game.”
Hohns’s desire for Australian limited overs vice-captain Carey to lead in Redbacks skipper Travis Head’s absence this season was coincidental.
“The Australia A game against Pakistan was my first one as captain and then Jake Lehmann was unfortunately left out of the SA team and Heady is away at Test duties,” Carey said.
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“It is just funny how he (Hohns) says that and it unfolds that way.
“We didn’t speak about it internally.”
Australia’s one-day tour of India looms in mid-January.
Carey said captaining and keeping across four one-day and Shield rounds is simulating demands that would come at the highest level.
“It is something in the short term I have enjoyed the label, experience and opportunity to do it. The more I do it I will work out what works as a leader and how it evolves,” said 2019 World Cup keeper of the tournament Carey.
“It is how I fill this job at SA level, focus on performing well in the field and thinking about the game out there.”
Carey spent the World Cup in England alongside Steve Smith but never felt undermined while deputy to Finch.
Smith is guilty of no off-switch rather than over-contributing in the field as Test great Ian Chappell has noted.
“Steve always has his mind on each ball that is being bowled. He has tried to help the team come up with the right ideas and it is just a matter of filtering them through to the skipper,” said Carey.
“He is one guy I loved standing next to in the World Cup, (he) always had a thought on what we should do next.”