‘She is the harshest critic of the reverse’ – Alex Carey reveals wife’s advice that helped him score big in WTC final

Alex Carey. (Photo Source: Twitter)

The World Test Championship 2023 final is heading towards an exciting end as Australia have set a target of 444 runs for India to chase down on the final day. Australia built on their massive lead of 173 runs in the second innings on Day 4, as Alex Carey (66*) and Mitchell Starc (41) added 93 runs for the seventh wicket.

Carey had scored 48  off 69 in the first innings to help Australia cross the 450-run mark.  However, his innings ended as he got lbw against Ravindra Jadeja while trying to reverse-sweep the left-arm spinner. Notably, it was the fourth time that he got dismissed trying to play that shot this year. However, he did not attempt the shot even ince in the second innings. Meanwhile, Carey had previously revealed that his wife Eloise is the harshest critique of his reverse sweep.

“My wife is the harshest critic of the reverse. She says, ‘don’t play the bloody reverse sweep, not again. But I just politely tell her, ‘You haven’t played the game. Yes, you’re going to get out to reverse sweeps and sweeps… but it can also produce some success as well,’” Carey was quoted as saying by Dailymail.

Notably, Carey has played the reverse sweep 16 times in Tests this year and has been dismissed four times, which means one dismissal in every four attempts. During the second innings on Day 4, the southpaw played the traditional sweep to counter Jadeja who was bowling into the rough from over the wicket.

The 31-year-old learned from his mistakes and did not play a single reverse sweep to help his side put on a massive lead of 443. Later, Australia managed to get three Indian wickets by stumps of Rohit Sharma (43), Cheteshwar Pujara (27) and Shubman Gill (18).

India needed another 280 runs to win on Day 5 with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane at the crease. However, Scott Boland crushed Indian hopes by dismissing Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the same over during the first hour. India collapsed eventually and were dismissed for 234, losing the game by 209 runs.