New Zealand vs Australia test match: Alex Carey falls to sweep shot again after Marnus Labuschagne robbed of century by miracle catch

The Australian wicket-keeper in the past joked about being asked by his wife to put the shot away. To his credit, Alex Carey did heed her advice. On day two, the sweep shot let the 32-year-old down in rather embarrassing fashion.

Alex Carey had a day to forget against New Zealand at Hagley Oval.

Alex Carey and the sweep shot have had an interesting relationship over the years.

They’ve been best friends for most parts. Carey for the record had got out while playing the conventional sweep only twice before Saturday.

You have to go back all the way to the start of his career, the first two series to be precise, to find those dismissals. They came off Jack Leach in Sydney and Babar Azam in Lahore. Both of those were in circumstances where his wicket didn’t have a significant impact on the match.

And more often than not, the sweep shot has been highly profitable for Carey. There was an innings in Galle two years ago where the first nine scoring shots for the Australian wicketkeeper were sweep shots. It was a crucial 45 that went on to play a crucial role in his team winning the Test.

If anything, the fallings-out he’s had with the sweep shot have happened when he’s tried to make the relationship interesting and opted for the reverse variety. This is not to say that he’s not found success with it. But there was a period of a few months, where five of the eight dismissals against spinners came while attempting the reverse-sweep, twice in fact in the same Test in Nagpur off R Ashwin.

So much so that he’d even joked about being asked by his wife, Eloise, to put the shot away, especially after he’d played an untoward version of it in the first innings of the World Test Championship final at The Oval last year. To his credit, Carey did heed her advice, at least in terms of becoming a lot more selective with when and how he goes about it.

Then on Day 2 at Hagley Oval, the sweep shot let the 32-year-old down in rather embarrassing fashion. It was an innocuous delivery from Glenn Phillips bowling his first over of the innings. Carey, like he generally tends to do, got into position to play a paddle sweep rather premeditatedly. The field was set in such a way, that the successful completion of the shot would have got him at best a single. It seemed like a release shot, and a very instinctive one. Somehow. though, he mistimed his movement towards the ball in such an untoward fashion that the ball strangely ended up catching the cue end of his bat and ballooned straight to Tom Latham at short mid-wicket. The expression on Carey’s face summed up his own bafflement as well as everyone else’s before he picked himself up and walked away despondently.

Glenn Phillips of New Zealand celebrates dismissing Carey.

His dismissal was as mistimed from a team perspective as it was his own. The left-hander had gotten away with a couple of nervy pokes outside his off-stump against the seamers, both getting him boundaries off the edge of his bat. With Australia still only 27 runs ahead, and the fast bowlers having been seen off, this was the time for the visitors to press the advantage and take a wholesome lead in the first innings. The first major tiff between Carey and his sweep shot couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time.

His rapport with the sweep is a lot like Carey’s relationship with Test cricket. They seem to get along most days. They’ve seemed made for each other most days since he made his debut in unexpected circumstances back in December 2021. And they’ve seemed mutually beneficial for each other too at most junctures.

Every now and then, though, they do seem to fall out with each other as well. His diminishing returns in front of the wicket during the England tour after a very strong beginning did cast doubts in the minds of some whether his place in the team could be challenged. Losing his spot in the playing XI at the 50-over World Cup after only a solitary game, and the subsequent success of Josh Inglis, only added to the speculation.

That continued into the early part of the home Test summer, where his batting technique ended up being scrutinised endlessly. Carey turned it around and seemed to have patched things up with his Test career once more as the summer ended with strong showings in Sydney and Brisbane. It wasn’t so much the inconsistency with the bat that seemed to be an issue, though. It was more the fashion in which he was getting dismissed at times that was seen as a sign of discontentment between the two.

Marnus Labuschagne fell for 90 after a spectacular catch from Phillips.

An offhand drive straight to the cover fielder, a relatively loose jab at a delivery outside his off-stump or the poorly executed sweep in Christchurch. That he bats at the crucial No. 7 position as wicketkeeper, where his dismissals always seem to have an impact on the game, especially at a time the Australian top and middle order isn’t at its prolific best, only adds to the scrutiny.

Carey’s Test average, which peaked at 39.56 only 14 months ago, has now dipped below 30 during this tour of New Zealand. It still keeps him ahead of two legendary names in Ian Healy and Rod Marsh. But it’s been quite a drop since January 2023, where he sat in terms of batting averages only second to Adam Gilchrist. He’s also fallen behind his closest long-term predecessors, Tim Paine and Brad Haddin, both of whom finished with averages in the 30s.

Through it all, Carey’s wicketkeeping standards have not only remained high but also seemed to have improved from series to series, even impressing with his glovework on the tricky pitches in India last year.

There have been a couple of costly errors along the way, though. And once again it was the timing of his drop late on Saturday, following up from the forgettable sweep flop earlier in the day, that made the missed opportunity feel even worse. Getting Latham out late on Day 2 would have left Australia in a massive state of ascendancy after all. It was also the kind of catch Carey has generally devoured, diving to his left with both hands. But it wasn’t to be this time.

This is not to say Carey’s relationship with his Test career is on thin ice or even on borrowed time. There’s been no signal from team management that he is under pressure to keep his place in the side for the next home summer against India. But New Zealand setting a target big enough for Carey to be required to bat, and potentially make a telling contribution, would not be the worst result from the South Australian’s perspective.

It’ll at least give him a chance to prove once and for all, as much to himself as everyone else, that it is a secure bond and that there is indeed no trouble in paradise. The same might be the case with his sweep shot.