With the Ashes set to begin from November 21 later this year, Australia wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey believes that the Baggy Greens are well-prepared to counter England's much-talked about ‘Bazball’ STYLE OF BATTING. Carey stated that England’s aggressive brand of cricket isn’t something entirely new for Australia, and they won’t be making significant changes to their own playing style in response.
“We probably don’t have to go too far away from our style of cricket. When we were over there (England) last time in the Ashes, there was a lot of talk about their new style of play. We’ve seen it for a number of years now, and there will be no surprises with it. We know the way that they play. Both teams have a good balance between grinding and going after them with certain players,” Carey told Cricket Australia.
Carey also congratulated Joe Root for surpassing Australian legend Ricky Ponting in the list of all-time leading Test run-scorers.
Root has now become the second-highest scorer in Test cricket history with 13,543 runs under his name so far. This comes after the England batter scored 537 runs in the recently-concluded five-match series against India. He is now only behind the legendary Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 15,921 runs in the format.
“I don’t think he’ll be feeling any pressure (in the Ashes). Congratulations to him as well (for passing Ponting), it’s a fantastic career so far. No doubt, legends of the game want to do really well in every series, and he’ll be no different,” Carey stated.
Carey praises India for 'spectacular' victory over England
Carey was left thoroughly impressed with India's thrilling 6-run victory over England in the fifth and final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. He further remarked that it was Mohammed Siraj’s ability to move the old ball on the final morning that made all the difference in the end.
England appeared to be cruising towards victory on Day 5 and needed just 35 runs with four wickets in hand. However, Siraj’s brilliant opening spell in the morning turned the game on its head. The Indian pacer first took the big wickets of Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton before bundling out the hosts with the wicket of Gus Atkinson.
“I think the whole series was pretty entertaining - the way it finished was pretty spectacular. To see five Test matches go five days is pretty unique. Seeing Woaksey (Chris Woakes) walk out to bat was pretty courageous. I was probably backing them (England) to score the runs. I reckon once we saw Siraj bowl that first over (on day 5), there was quite a bit of movement with a 77-over old ball," Carey remarked.
Meanwhile, Australia currently sit at the top of the World Test Championship (WTC) points table with a win percentage of 100%. This is due to the fact that the Baggy Greens recently whitewashed the three-match series against West Indies, making an incredibly strong start to their new WTC cycle.