Peter Nevill aims to reclaim his Australian wicketkeeping position ahead of the Ashes

PETER Nevill has amped up his bid to reclaim the Australian wicketkeeping gloves this summer by joining forces with Test great Ian Healy.

Peter Nevill has been in good form for the NSW Blues. Picture. Phil Hillyard

Peter Nevill has amped up his bid to reclaim the Australian wicketkeeping gloves this summer by joining forces with Test great Ian Healy.

Incumbent gloveman Matthew Wade’s axing from the embattled one-day team in India is the latest sign his cards are all but marked for the Ashes, and young South Australian stumper Alex Carey and Nevill are now queuing up for a crack at England.

Australia’s batting appears confidence-ridden and marred by mental and technical deficiencies — a frightening sign just weeks out from the biggest contest in cricket, and to guard against the plague of batting collapses selectors need their keeper to provide consistent runs.

The controversial decision to axe the No. 1 keeper in the country Nevill last summer has been shown up as a major blunder based on Wade’s poor run-scoring efforts since being called up.

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Peter Nevill has been in good form for the NSW Blues. Picture. Phil Hillyard

Nevill has declared he’s a better batsman than he was 12 months ago, and the three hundreds he scored for NSW immediately following his demotion back up that assertion.

Gun talent Carey, 26, is understood to be at the forefront of selectors’ minds, but 31-year-old Nevill is confident he is well in the frame, and runs in the opening three Shield rounds and the domestic one-day cup starting later this week will be crucial.

Australia’s revered gloveman Healy has already made public his support for Nevill, claiming that if Wade is dropped, the experienced New South Welshman is the only man selectors should consider for the pressure cooker of an Ashes campaign.

Now Healy has spent the past week in Nevill’s corner helping him finetune his work behind the stumps for the massive few weeks ahead.

“Most of it is just chatting with him. Having him run an eye over everything and doing drills with him and seeing if there’s anything he sees there,” Nevill told The Daily Telegraph.

“There was nothing technically, it was just more having a good chat about what the keys were. The things he focused on when he was wicketkeeping and just chatting through the intricacies of that. It was very beneficial.

“He’s someone who is generous with their time. He always says he’s only ever a phone call away and if I want to talk to him about anything or send him any footage or anything like that he’s always more than willing to accommodate. So I’m very lucky with that.”

South Australia’s Alex Carey is also under consideration. (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Over the past couple of months Nevill has also worked with mentors Brad Haddin and Daniel Smith, but it’s subtle changes he made to his batting last summer under the watchful eye of NSW assistant Dom Thornely which could prove most beneficial.

Since the disappointment of being dropped, Nevill went back to Shield level and posted scores of 179 not out, 118 and 143 not out which left little doubt over his abilities with the willow.

Carey is heavily favoured by a selection panel that may prefer to look to the future, however he is yet to score a first-class hundred.

Nevill is confident he is the batsman selectors need him to be.

“There were some minor adjustments I made after getting dropped. I did quite a bit of work with Dom Thornely and he had a couple of little points that really worked wonders for me throughout the back half of the year,” he said.

“There were two subtle things, one with my back lift, and one with my head.

“I certainly got a lot of benefit out of that and my performances for the second half of the year probably reflected that.”

Last year Australia’s 5-0 one-day series loss in South Africa directly fed into their summer Test crisis which resulted in five players and selector Rod Marsh losing their jobs.

With ruthless Indian skipper Virat Kohli now vowing his side will push for another whitewash, the writing is on the wall for an Australian side desperate to swing momentum back in their direction before England arrive.