Alex Carey’s Brisbane heroics spark debate about Australia’s greatest wicketkeepers

Alex Carey’s brilliance behind the stumps in the second Test of the Ashes has sparked debate about where he sits in the pantheon of Australian Test wicketkeepers. Have your say here.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald says Alex Carey’s spectacular display in Brisbane has sparked debate about where he sits in the pantheon of the nation’s best-ever glovemen.

Leave batting ability to one side, and ask yourself who is the best craftsman behind the stumps Australia has produced?

Ian Healy even went back 80 years to mention Don Tallon, the Queenslander who was renowned for his elastic reach down the leg side when describing the mastery of Carey’s work behind the stumps in the second Ashes Test.

Healy was regarded as one of the best, if not the best modern-day gloveman and went through a period of more than two years where he didn’t drop a catch.

Alex Carey flies for a ball in Brisbane.

When he did drop one in South Africa it created a press box scramble to try and work out when he had last put one down.

Adam Gilchrist, automatically picked as the wicketkeeper in ‘best ever’ XIs, called Carey’s work at the Gabba “keeping perfection” while Brad Haddin declared on commentary that Carey’s performance was the greatest he had witnessed from a keeper. High praise from another of Australia’s most accomplished glovemen.

Like Healy and Gilchrist’s class keeping to Shane Warne, Tim Paine was exceptional standing up to the stumps to Nathan Lyon.

Paine had a smooth efficiency about him and his reputation as Australia’s best keeper was what delivered his staggering recall to the Test team when he wasn’t even getting picked for Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield.

Before Carey was born, Rod Marsh would spear through the air like Superman with his athletic diving to the fast men down the leg side and he would have admired Carey’s performance as one of the great ambassadors for wicketkeepers.

As a selector, Marsh once picked Peter Nevill to bat at No.11 at a Twenty20 World Cup match in India, such was the premium he put on having the best out-and-out keeper in the team, regardless of hitting ability.

Leading into this Ashes series, the BBC and other pundits were nominating England’s Jamie Smith over Carey as their keeper of choice when naming their best ‘combined’ XI of the two Ashes teams.

However, Carey’s flawless catching standing up to the stumps to medium pacer Michael Neser and at times Scott Boland put Smith in the shade and will live long in the memory of anyone who admires pristine wicketkeeping.

McDonald said it was no accident that Carey has proven himself worthy to be talked about among the greats.

“You see the work that he does with Andre Borovec (Australian fielding coach) and the time and energy he puts into creating those repeatable movements,” McDonald said.

“It was incredibly difficult (what he did in Brisbane). For him to continue to hold his position up to the stumps and take the bouncing ball, and cover the low, bouncing ball, there’s a lot of work involved to get to that point.

“He’s creating a conversation around who has been our best keeper over time, really.

“With his ability to come up to the stumps for medium pace, he’s worked in the subcontinent, his lateral movement down the leg side – he’s got the accolades he deserves from this Test match, but that’s been going on for a long period of time.”

Wicketkeeping is an often thankless job where you’re expected to catch everything with little credit, but then suddenly the sky falls in when an error is made.

But Neser’s remarkable five-wicket haul belonged just as much to Carey for the way he imposed himself in the minds of the English batters.

“It was a real threat,” McDonald said.

“It was a real presence behind there.”

Neser might have originally been brought in for the Gabba as a pink ball specialist, but the Neser-Carey combination is likely to come into play as a tactic in the Ashes again before the series is through.