India vs Australia: Alex Carey wants to stick to strength of sweeping in Ahmedabad Test

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Ahmedabad, March 6: Australia wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey feels a positive approach is better rather than taking a defensive one in the final Test against India in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

The 31-year-old has been impressive behind the stumps on wickets offering turn from day one, but has only managed 56 runs with the bat in the series so far.

36 of those 53 runs came in the first innings of the series opener in which Carey looked positive with sweeps and reverse seeps. And the southpaw feels he will stick to his strength of playing those sweep shots again as he aims for runs.

"I had some confidence out of the first game and then getting out defending, am I happy with that? Not really," Carey was quoted as saying to the reporters.

"I think probably just sticking to my method now and understanding if you chase it too much then you might get yourself into trouble.

"So yeah, back my strength and try to score with the sweeps and manipulate a little bit more that way. In India, if you change your method too much, it goes pretty quickly. I'll continue to be positive over here."

Australia made an unexpected comeback in the series with a nine-wicket win at the Holkar Stadium last Friday (March 3) and also booked their spot in the World Test Championship final.

India, who lead the series 2-1 going into the final game, can also seal their spot in the summit clash scheduled for June 7-11 by avoiding defeat in the final Test in Ahmedabad.

After the Delhi debacle, Australians did not play a lot of sweep shots, but did not abandon them completely in the Indore Test.

While Carey said the Australian batters have their own methods to deal with rank turners, he is going to back his own of playing the sweeps in the final Test beginning in Ahmedabad from March 9.

"We all know that our players play differently, Travis (Head) will play an aggressive nature and Peter (Handscomb) will grind out runs, and he's played beautifully. And Steve (Smith) does it his way.

"We've all got different methods and, internally, we live with that. So looking forward to another opportunity in Ahmedabad and get down and maybe get the broom out again," he said.

Matthew Kunhemann's delivery on day 1 of the third Test deceived Rohit Sharma with Carey pulling off some impressive glovework to send India skipper, who had survived twice in the first over, back to the pavillion.

The ball from Kuhnemann turned eight degrees and Rohit missed it with Carey doing the rest behind the stumps. The stumper reacted on the delivery and spoke of his relief of removing Rohit early.

"Instinct takes over when you see a ball bounce like that. I don't think many of us were expecting an eight degree turning ball that early in the game. But it was nice to hold on to that and for us to get a bit of momentum.

"It was nice after we missed a couple of reviews (in the first over of the game ) to get that one - I thought once the big screen showed the nick, I thought he might have settled in for a nice 150 or something like that," he added.

(With PTI inputs)