The Ashes 2013/14: 'I’d love to bring a spark to Test No 6 job,' says Michael Carberry

Understudy opener falls short of a ton but still has his eye on England’s middle-order vacancy

Michael Carberry bats during his innings of 78 on Friday (GETTY IMAGES)

Some cricketers are destined for careers of quiet, unassuming accomplishment. Their place is to make solid contributions without making the sparks fly or lighting up the place.

Michael Carberry had to become a qualified electrician before he could be sure of doing so. He was a surprising, though perfectly valid, choice for this winter sojourn and yesterday he made 78 solid, sometimes luminous runs for the tourists in their opening match.

They will probably not be enough to open the innings in place of either the captain, Alastair Cook, or his present sidekick, Joe Root, or to supplant any of the middle-order triumvirate. But there is a place going begging at No 6 in the Ashes team and Carberry made it plain that he would be ready for that berth.

“I have played in quite a few strong batting line-ups and as a young pro making my way had to slot in where there was a space,” he said. “I have made first-class hundreds batting at five, six. I don’t see that as being a hindrance. Especially when you have the sort of guys there are before you, it’s quite a nice position to come in following them. Nothing has been discussed and I am keeping it a blank canvas in my own mind.”

It is an intriguing prospect and Carberry’s left-handedness and his obvious assurance with his game should not rule it out. He looked set for all the world to make his 28th first-class hundred yesterday as he cut and drove quite delightfully at times on a friendly surface against bowling which was usually its match.

To his astonishment and annoyance it was the cut which did for him as he slashed his 100th ball to point in search of his 13th four. A hundred invariably influences selectors at any stratum more than a mere fifty, and six players from the WACA Chairman’s XI had already reached that landmark in their 451 for 5 declared.

Two more England colleagues, Ian Bell, batting lustrously as ever, and Jonathan Trott, efficiency personified, followed him. Carberry was selected primarily on this tour as the reserve opener in case Cook’s back or Root’s form (he made a mere 36 yesterday when all around were making fifties for fun) should go, though he begged to differ.

“I don’t see myself as a reserve anything,” he said. “I have come out here with the mentality to play. If it’s not to be, then good luck to the guys who do play. All I can do is knock on the door.”

But he was hardly expecting the call to come to Australia. Although he had played a solitary Test in Bangladesh three years ago and in five one-day internationals last summer when Cook was rested, his County Championship season was solid rather than spectacular.

“There was a slight element of surprise because I hadn’t played Test cricket for three years,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t. It has been a long three years to get back to play Test cricket and a lot of hard work has gone into it.”

Carberry was seriously ill with a blood clot on his lung in late 2010, months after his Test debut. Knowing he was lucky to have survived, let alone play as a professional cricketer again, he studied to be an electrician and qualified in early 2012 – doing, as he said, a two-year course in six months.

Last winter he plied his new trade and this year he has left his business in the hands of his foreman. These sort of experiences in a life and a career that is necessarily short in any case tend to bring a fresh viewpoint. That may be the case with Carberry.

Of his 27 hundreds, 22 have been scored in his more natural position as opener, two at three, one at five and one at six, when he was still playing for Kent nine years ago. Whatever he says, he is an opener; but England are not spoiled for choice at six, where Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes are the other candidates. Cook is now the sole left-hander among the rest of the order. Carberry and Ballance are both left-handers. Every little helps in making a bowler have to do a little bit more work or thinking.

England were kept in the field for more than another hour yesterday while two more of their opponents cruised to fifties. There was almost nothing at all in it for the bowlers in terms of deviation, swing or turn.

It was astonishing when a ball from Michael Beer suddenly spat and crashed into the wicketkeeper’s head as he rose. It brought forth copious amounts of blood but thankfully Tom Triffitt soon returned.

Perhaps the surface will have regained some of its legendary zip by the time the third Test starts next month. It would be a pity if Australian pitches become as anodyne as too many around the world. Both bowlers and batsmen should have to work hard for their rewards but they need encouragement as well.

England had never conceded a higher total in the opening match of an Australia tour. The experience may have done them good. But they will need to be much more penetrating against Australia A next week in Hobart and a batsman-heavy invitation XI in Sydney the week after. It is good training for taking 20 wickets in a Test match.