Eng vs Aus – 3rd ODI – Alex Carey’s form creates headache ahead of Champions Trophy 2025

Inglis is still recovering and Carey took his chances with back-to-back scores of 74 and 77 not out, in both innings rescuing Australia from dangerous spots to send the scores to Headingley and Chester-le-Street respectively.

“It’s always a problem to have a problem when you have people competing for spots in your team,” he said. “Unfortunately, Josh got injured in the T20 series, and Alex has stepped into that position and he’s doing incredibly well. So like I said, it’s always a problem to have.”

“It’s always something we’ll consider,” McDonald said. “If you think back to the last 12 months, we had Ingo and Kez in the same team. So it’s possible, and the way Alex bats is very impressive. To sum it up, to go around mid-on against spin. He’s a top player. He played international cricket, so the way he is doing is not surprising.”

Australia have been keen to try an all-rounder at No.8 since McDonald took over in 2022 in the hope that he could use that combination in major tournaments, then return to playing seven batsmen and four specialist bowlers that was the model that won the World Cup. Hardie’s form adds to their options, and could strengthen the game to play eight batsmen if he bowls well in the series so far. He can bowl with the new ball, and has given a display of his lethality despite his limited experience in the domestic role.

“Aaron Hardie called the team late, he executed hard to get us to the total,” McDonald said. “He was really good today.

“It is something we have discussed for a long time, and we are making history by saying that, leading up to the last World Cup, we wanted to have three different ways of playing, and one of those was the eighth. So we’ve done that before. Allrounders aren’t always available and fit, so sometimes that team isn’t on the table.

“But we feel that with the designers we have with Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, he throws in Marcus Stoinis for those who are not here, Is Sutherland exposed throughout the tour. So he starts to deal with that. Matthew Short is an allrounder himself and, along with -Glenn Maxwell So we have options to be able to be organized in that way of playing.”

“It’s always a different team without Adam Zampa, he’s been an amazing player for us for a long time,” said McDonald. “It was a late decision to leave him out. Obviously we’ve had a bit of sickness in camp, and that’s been well documented. Unfortunately, he’s the latest.

“[Head] should be ready for the next game. I won’t go on there, but he should be ready to go.”