Carey promotion may put him ahead of Head

AUSTRALIA has spent more than a century convincing itself wicketkeepers don’t make Test captains.

Now it could go for two in a row.

Rising star gloveman Alex Carey yesterday emerged as a prime candidate to be Tim Paine’s successor in every sense of the word, after he was promoted to lead a strong Australia A side against Pakistan next month.

Australian vice-captain Travis Head is out of the Test team and will be flat out winning his spot back for the first Test of the summer.

Head will line up in the three-day Australia A tour match against Pakistan in Perth starting on November 11 in a cut-throat batting shootout with fellow contenders Marcus Harris, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Will Pucovski and Nic Maddinson for just two vacancies in the Test top six. Pat Cummins has also been pushed forward as a Test captain but doesn’t appear to covet the role and has enough on his plate spearheading the bowling attack.

There is no doubt the promotion of Carey to captain Australia A — ahead of Head — is a very pointed indication of where he might sit in the reckoning should a changing of the guard occur.

Australian coach Justin Langer has made it clear current skipper Paine is well and truly entrenched in his post, but as the Tasmanian approaches his 35th birthday, a succession plan will ultimately have to be put into place at some point in time.

National selector Trevor Hohns has made no secret of the esteem he holds Carey in.

“He is held in such high regard that I’d seriously like to see him captaining his state, but that’s not for me to say,” Hohns recently told cricinfo.

“He’s the type of person that potentially is a very, very good leader.”

Hohns reinforced that belief yesterday.

“This fixture [against Pakistan] represents an opportunity to provide Alex with more leadership experience and he will be supported by two experienced vice-captains in Usman Khawaja and Travis Head,” Hohns said.