NEW DELHI: Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey’s neat glovework in the third Test against India has earned him praise from coach Andrew McDonald and the 31-year-old wants to be equally effective with the bat in the ongoing series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

McDonald said Carey put on “an absolute cli­nic” in Nagpur, where Australia triumphed by nine wickets to bounce back after back-to-back defeats in Nagpur and Delhi.

Carey conceded three byes in the match and stumped India captain Rohit Sharma, giving, McDonald believes, Aust­ralia “control of the game”.

Carey said he spoke to several former Australia stumpers before arriving in India.

“I speak to guys regularly who’ve played for Australia in terms of (Brad) Haddin and (Adam) Gilchrist and Ian Healy’s always in the corner there,” Carey told reporters on Sunday.

“I think our training wickets have been really difficult as well so it’s been nice to actually stand in a training wicket and keep to our bowlers.”

The depth of India’s batting has proved decisive in the first two matches of the series, while Australia accommodated rookie spinners Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann in their tail.

Australia’s lower order has not contributed much in the series so far and Carey’s plot to sweep his way out of trouble has not worked so far either.

“We know that we haven’t given enough at the tail there,” Carey said.

“We also understand that India’s batting line-up’s very, very strong.

“We’ll have those conversations about how we can navigate and try to get 10-15 runs each more.”

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2023