Australian WC Alex Carey hoping to earn a baggy green test cap

Sydney:Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey is happy to represent the national side in just limited-overs cricket but has ambitions of making it into the Test team as well.

Carey has been in reasonably good red-ball form in recent seasons. In the 2019-20 Sheffield Shield, he made 386 runs from seven innings at 55.14, including two hundreds and a fifty for South Australia. However, being a part of the Australian limited-overs set up means that he hasn't had too many opportunities to press his case in first-class cricket.

"I've played maybe six to eight first-class games in the last two summers," Carey said in a video conference. "It isn't a lot of cricket but the positive for me is that in those limited opportunities I've done really well... scored a few hundreds back to back there."

 "I'm learning about my game every time I go out and play cricket, whether it's with the red ball or the white ball," he said. "As a cricketer, I'm 28 now, I'm learning a lot about myself and as you do you mature into your body, you start to work out what you can do out on the field, so with the limited opportunities it's been a little difficult just not knowing, or going straight back to red ball from a white-ball tour but that's the way it is now."

While being tied up with limited-overs assignments for Australia might limit Carey's chances to make a mark in red-ball cricket, he remains 'very happy' to play for his country in the first place, an ICC report on Thursday said.

 "If I play cricket for Australia just with the white ball I'm a very happy man. It's been a couple of enjoyable seasons for me playing for Australia in the T20s and one-dayers. I continue, hopefully, to learn and be good enough, one day, to learn and earn a Test cap,"  Carey added.

(UNI)