it has been identified as an important reason<\/a> England have not been able to impose their will on the series that was lost inside 11 days. And it is only possible due to Carey\u2019s talent with the gloves.<\/p>\nAhead of the Boxing Day Test, Boland said the tweak has been an adjustment for him and something of a blow to his ego, given he is one of the best pacemen in the country and typically bowls close to 140km\/h.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019ve never really had it before, I just didn\u2019t really feel comfortable with it,\u201d he said. \u201cI know everyone wants to be a \u2018fast\u2019 bowler, and you don\u2019t really like to see the keeper up to the stumps, but I\u2019ve seen over the last month how effective it is and how still I can keep their batter by Alex being up to the stumps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Carey whips the bails off in Adelaide. Photograph: Nigel Owen\/Action Plus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Coach Andrew McDonald first raised the possibility of using tactic with Boland before the last Ashes, but it has taken more than two years for it to fully come to fruition. \u201cSpeaking on the phone, he said just get your head around bowling with the keeper up to the stumps because the batters like to move around the crease a lot and if we can get them camped where you want them to be, at least you know where you\u2019re going to be, the length of the want to bowl,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Carey revealed after the Brisbane Test he does not practise the technique given the danger involved, but it has proven an ace up the Australians\u2019 sleeve in countering England\u2019s aggression.<\/p>\n
Boland was targeted during the 2023 Ashes, and said they \u201ccame hard\u201d at him during the first innings of the first Test in Perth, where he was wicketless in 10 first-innings overs that went for more than six runs apiece.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past when I\u2019ve had the keeper up at the back, I haven\u2019t felt that comfortable and you end up bowling a little bit fuller, but I\u2019ve got full trust in Cares [Carey] that if I hit my normal length and if the ball does go above the stumps, he\u2019s got amazing hands and has been really keeping the pressure on the English batters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Captain Pat Cummins and stand-in Steve Smith have been happy to let the pair dictate when and when not to deploy the approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing about that is we\u2019d speak every couple of overs, or every over before the start of it, if he\u2019s feeling that it\u2019s better off being back, then I trust him,\u201d Boland said. \u201cIf he\u2019s like, \u2018nah, I want to come up, I think we can trap him on the crease\u2019 then I\u2019ll back his judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boland has overcome a hip complaint and is in line to play at the MCG on Boxing Day, while Carey\u2019s glovework this summer has been accompanied by brilliance with the bat. His 267 runs are behind only Travis Head\u2019s 379 for the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The unorthodox strategy has proved crucial for the Australians in their Ashes victory this summer, but fast bowler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-332950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}