New Delhi, Oct 26 — Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey has called on the team’s batters to turn promising starts into substantial contributions ahead of the third and deciding Test against South Africa in Cape Town, with the tourists under pressure to respond after their collapse in Gqeberha.
Australia were dismissed for 99 in the second Test, suffering an innings-and-31-run defeat that exposed their struggles to build partnerships and post competitive totals. With the series on the line, Carey believes the batting unit must find greater consistency rather than rely on isolated individual performances.
“I understand that point. We’ve had some amazing individual performances over that time, which is great to see. But you do also understand if that doesn’t happen, what does it look like?
“As a batting group, we’ve got to convert those starts into more runs and hopefully back up that one performance. It might not be hundreds for three batters, but if one can have a good day and two can really support him and you push that scoreboard up, that’s what we’re after,” Carey was quoted by cricket.com.au.
The numbers underline Australia’s concerns heading into the decider. The visitors have been reduced to 4-95 or worse in 13 of their past 23 innings, while their last four Tests have produced six individual scores above 50 against 22 innings in which batters made between 20 and 49.
Marnus Labuschagne’s inability to build on starts has become a talking point, with six of his last nine scores falling between 30 and 49. His position in the side is under scrutiny following Australia’s heavy defeat, while Nic Maddinson is expected to make way for Cameron Green in the selection shake-up.
South Africa are also prepared to test Australia’s batters mentally. Proteas wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton indicated that Labuschagne’s recent pattern of scores could become a target, particularly given his history of competitive exchanges with Marco Jansen.
“Marco will always look to exploit that (run of starts). The first highlight for him is they can chat in Afrikaans with each other. And the crowd also jumps in on that as well. Obviously, Marnus isn’t the only one under a bit of heat on both sides. All of us are in various ways. With Marco’s aggression, they have had a good contest in the past,” Rickleton said.