Time starting to run against Alex Carey in bid to wear Test gloves

The coronavirus is taking so much. Leisure, work, money. Lives. It’s also stealing time, and some have more of that than others.

Australia’s Alex Carey in action against South Africa in a T20 international at The Wanderers in Johannesburg in February. Picture: AFP

The coronavirus is taking so much. Leisure, work, money. Lives. It’s also stealing time, and some have more than others.

Alex Carey turns 29 in August. Australia’s Test wicketkeeper-in-waiting is already older than Adam Gilchrist was when he usurped Ian Healy after a long wait of his own.

Keepers are used to waiting. It comes with the gloves. Barry Jarman behind Wally Grout. Darren Berry behind Healy and Gilchrist. Don Tallon behind a world war.

Carey says he’s enjoying being home with his family after a hectic schedule, but the pandemic has come at a terrible time in his career, just as he’d allayed any concerns over his red-ball batting.

In seven innings for South Australia between his national limited overs commitments last season, Carey scored two Sheffield Shield hundreds and averaged 55.14. It continued a trend of consistent improvement after a moderate start to his first-class career with the bat. He batted beautifully in last year’s World Cup, but needed more red-ball runs to prove his worth as the back-up Test gloveman.

“With limited opportunity playing first-class cricket with the white-ball schedule that’s happened across the last few summers, I think I’ve played maybe six-to-eight first-class games,” Carey said on Thursday. “The positive for me is with those limited opportunities I’ve done really well, scored a few hundreds.

“Hopefully I’ll continue to learn and hopefully be good enough one day to earn a Test cap. But there’s a lot to do between now and then if it does happen.”

A lot to do and an incumbent to fall. Tim Paine is unchallenged as Test captain and the lack of cricket — especially him being spared keeping to three spinners in the furnace that is Bangladesh now that tour has been cancelled — might prolong his career.

In a normal world, Carey would be keeping for Delhi Capitals in his first taste of the Indian Premier League. The IPL’s cancellation is a disaster for his bank balance and a setback for his cricket, with the T20 World Cup looming in October.

Carey is more optimistic than hopeful that the home World Cup proceeds as scheduled.

“But we’ve got to put the virus first and foremost and make sure that everyone’s healthy and safe before we can consider going back to even training,” he said.