Alex Carey has confirmed his future with the Adelaide Strikers after signing a four-year deal with the club.
He is the Strikers’ third-highest run-scorer in the BBL, behind Travis Head and Jake Weatherald, and will be in line to captain the team for a large part of the tournament with Head away on Test duty.
“Alex is a key part of the group, a player and leader of the highest standard, and for him to be at the Strikers for the next four years is a massive result for this franchise, the city and our fans,” head coach Jason Gillespie said.
“We feel we have assembled a squad that covers every facet of the T20 game, and we’ll be ready to hit the ground running for a huge tenth season of the Big Bash.”
Carey recently lost his vice-captaincy role with the Australia limited-overs teams as they returned to having a traditional single vice-captain in Pat Cummins. He was also left out of Australia’s last T20I against England, to be replaced by Matthew Wade, and he has not been able to bring his BBL form into T20s – averaging 12.57 from 18 innings.
After the ODI and T20I series against India, Carey is part of the Australia A squad for the second of the two warm-up matches which overlaps with the start of the BBL so he is set to be unavailable for the Strikers’ opening game against the Hobart Hurricanes on December 13.
“I’m very happy to be staying at the Strikers for the next four years being my home team,” Carey said, “and it is an unbelievable feeling playing at Adelaide Oval in front of the fans, family and friends, and I really hope that can continue this season.”
Strikers squad Danny Briggs (Eng), Phil Salt (Eng), Rashid Khan (Afg), Wes Agar, Alex Carey, Harry Conway, Travis Head, Spencer Johnson, Michael Neser, Harry Nielsen, Liam O’Connor, Matt Renshaw, Liam Scott, Matt Short, Peter Siddle, Cameron Valente, Jake Weatherald, Jon Wells, Daniel Worrall.