While he has become the Australian selectors first choice as a wicket-keeper with fellow wicket-keeper Josh Inglis too in the Australian squad for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting November 22, Alex Carey is expected to support the Australian middle-order at the bouncy Perth pitch. Carey, who has so far played in 32 Test matches in his career, had a break from international cricket early this year and has been working on changes in his bat position.

With Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and other Indian bowlers expected to utilise the bounce at the Perth pitch, Carey’s new found method can help his technique. “It’s only slight, but at the moment, it feels like I’m in a good position and reacting pretty well to the ball. You play and play and play, you don’t really get a chance to work on too many things. Not having games coming up for a while, I’ve just mucked around a little bit with my hands and found something that felt good and sort of ran with that. I just got my hands up a little bit higher, the bat up to the sky and from there just tried to react. It did feel good pretty much straight away, so I didn’t have to search too much,” Carey told the media after Australia’s first training session on Tuesday at Perth.

The 33-year-old was the leading run-scorer after the four rounds of the Sheffield Shield, where he has so far scored 452 runs at an average of 90.4. It also included two centuries. Carey had played match winning unbeaten knock of 98 runs in Australia’s three-wicket win in the second Test at Christchurch in March earlier this year with the Test happening to be Australia’s most recent Test match. Carey’s team-mate Travis Head too has put his weight behind the wicket-keeper for the five Test match Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“It’s the best form he’s been in. For him, it’s trying not to overplay it and not worry about too much. I know he’s not. I think he’s in a great space, has been for a while and now it’s starting to click for him. And once you sort of capture that form, you want to try to continue it on again. You’re never guaranteed that happens, but I think he’s going to play a huge role in his position and in this team,” Head told reporters on Tuesday.