Also Carey isn't that good with the gloves. He's good, and excellent against spin - though still not in Foakes's class, for example - but not flawless. To even have a prayer of justifying his place with his current batting contributions he has to be completely impeccable and he just isn't - he still has that issue where he doesn't transfer his weight properly onto his right foot when Starc especially is bowling over the wicket and it causes him to miss catches or even ignore catches to his right. It's a somewhat of a nitpick criticism but you know what, when "I'm the best keeper" is literally all you have going for you, even nitpicks can become serious problems.
I know what you are getting at, but there's no such thing as a flawless wicketkeeper...its all about who will make the least mistakes over 5 long days, who is the best at taking a ground ball fired in from the fence for a runout, who keeps best to Lyon, who sets the slips best, etc etc etc. Carey has already proven terrific picking when to go to DRS...an underrated talent these days. When he says go upstairs they do it. It all adds up.
The English team is NOW much better with Foakes in it. They should have woken up to their stupidity of a shoddy keeper very early during the Ashes. It cost them dearly.
Batting form is fleeting. If you pick the 3rd best keeper that is in decent batting form, what are you left with when that new guys form inevitably drops off ? Now you are playing your 3rd best gloveman costing matches giving you nothing with the bat....a roundabout of guys getting dropped.
Carey has played 30 tests and proven so far a very good gloveman. No, i dont see him as "great" but that type of term usually comes with time and a win/loss ratio. To me he's definitely worth persisting with in tests. I watched Ian Healy miss chances but some people forget he was human too. Healy was top class. His 25-32 (???) avge was enough at 7 for me. Lucky for Aust a freak then came along.
Carey is excellent to Lyon, as Healy was to Warne. It takes time to make a name for yourself though.
I'd rate Foakes the #1 with Carey a close #2 in the world right now based purely on gloves. I would not drop either after a recent run of outs with the bat. The poms need to replace Bairstow to take advantage of Foakes with a better middle order bat.... but Bairstow is mates with coach and captain. They are dumber than hammered **** and we like it that way.
As if 150 years of evidence wasnt enough for some, 2023 once again showed why you must always pick your best glove man, not a lesser guy with a slightly better batting average. 10 runs is NEVER worth a drop catch or missed runout/stumping. A good glove man makes you those 10 runs in saved sundries alone.
A stable number 7 is a vital ingredient to why Australia wins so many test matches. I dont want to fk with that.
