Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald heaps praise on Alex Carey for his keeping skills

The game of cricket is always like a chess where one has to be on their toes and make their moves almost ball by ball to trick batters to make mistake. On some instances, batters flourish by outclassing the cunning moves of their opponents while bowlers get the better of them on several occasions as well. But amidst all this humdrum, one major player hardly gets noticed who contributes like a silent soldier time and again. That soldier is none other than the wicket-keeper of the bowling side.

In the same vein, when the Indore Test of the Border Gavaskar Test series kicked off, the visitors needed one good start that could enable them to dictate the terms in the rest of the game which follows ahead. In the world of cricket, everyone knows that if Rohit Sharma gets going, there is no better sight than watching him bat and take the game away from the opposition with sheer dominance and impecabble strokeplay.

However, when the Indian skipper got out in the first hour of the Test itself, not many noticed the wicket-keeping skills of Alex Carey. The Australian head coach did not missed out on Carey’s importance and his sensational glovework behind the stumps.

Alex Carey’s stumping gave us control of the game: Andrew McDonald

“One part that hasn’t been spoken about enough is Alex Carey’s keeping,” McDonald said. “I think that on day one, that ball to Sharma, that high take, that stumping, if he doesn’t execute that Sharma gets a look at the wicket, he plays differently and the game rolls in a different direction,” the 41-year-old told ESPN Cricinfo.

“I think sometimes we are quick to criticise wicketkeepers. In this instance, I thought that day one was an absolute clinic and gave us control of the game. We saw [KS] Bharat miss a couple of half-chances, or get his leg in the way of balls that could have gone to first slip. So I thought that was a key moment in the game,” the Victorian concluded.