Ashes: Alex Carey breaks Rishabh Pant's record, scripts elusive feat on Test debut against England

Australia thrashed England by 9 wickets in the series-opener of Ashes 2021-22 at The Gabba on Saturday (December 11) to take a 1-0 lead in the high-profile series between the two arch-rivals. It was a dominant performance from the hosts in Brisbane as they bundled out England for a paltry 147 in the first innings before posting a huge total of 425 runs on the board in reply. 

England could only manage 297 runs in their second innings and suffered yet another batting collapse on Day 4 of the first Test at The Gabba on Saturday. The visitors handed a target of mere 20 runs to the Aussies, who won with nine wickets to spare to take lead in the series. While the likes of David Warner and Nathan Lyon were the star performers for Australia, wicket-keeper batter Alex Carey also had a memorable outing on Test debut.

Carey, who was playing his maiden Test in the Ashes 2021-22 opener at The Gabba, achieved the feat of taking the most number of catches on Test debut. He took a total of eight catches in the game to break the record of Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant, who had taken seven catches on his Test debut against England in 2018.

Carey also left behind the likes of Australia's Brian Taber and England's Chris Read, who both had seven catches each to their names on their respective Test debuts. After managing only 12 runs in the first innings, Carrey was sent to open the batting for Australia in the second innings with the host needing only 20 runs to win. He scored 9 runs before getting dismissed by Ollie Robinson as Australia wrapped up a dominant victory by nine wickets.

Also read: Ashes - Milestone man Nathan Lyon helps Australia thump England by 9 wickets in first Test

Australian spinner Nathan Lyon also achieved the milestone of 400 Test wickets as he brought an end to a long wait with a four-wicket haul in England's second innings at The Gabba. The spinner had gone wicket-less in the first innings but returned to pick up the wickets of Dawid Malan, Ollie Pope, Mark Wood and Robinon to reah 403 wickets in 101 Test matches so far in his career.