Will be my downfall at times, will have success at times: Carey on his reverse sweeps

Australia’s wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey batted with a lot of intent in the opening Test against India in Nagpur, scoring 46 runs off 39 deliveries across two innings. The left-hander played all kinds of sweeps against Indian spinners but it was the reverse sweep that led to his downfall in both innings against R Ashwin.

"Maybe the first innings execution (was the problem) and the second innings (I was) just trying to have a different method to the guys before me. It will be my downfall at times, I'll have success with it at times. It's finding the right balance, when is the right time to play like that. My wife's been onto me quite a bit about it so you might not see it for a little while (laughs),” ESPNcricinfo quoted Carey as saying. 

"(I was) maybe a little bit too keen to play a different style, but I guess in my first Test over here that's not a bad learning to have. Hopefully, I can find that balance along with all our players as well. We obviously want to be proactive, be calm and patient, and we had a pretty good look at that first-hand with a few of their players."

This was Carey’s first Test in India and the 31-year-old now understands the importance of being patient and playing conventional shots in these conditions. "Probably you can fall into over-playing conditions and certain names and what you see before you when go out to bat as well.

"For myself today I went back to batting more than anything else and reacting to what's being bowled down at me and trusting that method as well. At times it might be fast-forward mode but also (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar (Patel) showed as well you can be pretty patient."

Carey’s batting in these conditions is still a work in progress but he was brilliant behind the stumps. He even stood up to the stumps to Scott Boland and looked comfortable while keeping to Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy. “It's exciting for me behind the stumps.

"The ball is going to be up, it's going to be down. I might have to keep up to some of the quicks even though they don't like it that much. It was a great first taste of it. Hopefully, we don't have to do 150 overs too many times and we can get on top of India like they did to us. I enjoyed the experience and (I'm) probably expecting that type of wicket throughout the series."