One of Australia’s most promising players, Alex Carey is really excited at the prospect of representing the Delhi franchise in the IPL. “I was really delighted to have been picked up by the Delhi Capitals during the IPL Auction. I was over the moon, and I couldn’t stop smiling for 24 hours when I heard the news,” said Carey during a candid Instagram Live session with the franchises official handle.

“I was fortunate enough to have met some of the staff from the team including our owner Parth Jindal. All the people I’ve met are amazing, and it made me really excited coming over to Delhi, and playing some cricket,” added the 28-year-old.

“At this moment, I just want the IPL to get started, and I can’t wait for our team to build on last season’s result. I believe we have an amazing group of players in all departments and we will play some brilliant cricket when we get the chance,” Carey expressed.

Speaking on how prepared the players would be once the action resumes, Carey said they are professionals who will be back to their best in a couple of weeks of training. “I’ve been aiming at going for a 10K run thrice a week, along with shorter sprints, which helps me in maintaining my fitness levels. I’ve also been working with a golf ball in my backyard to keep my hand-eye coordination intact.”

“As cricketers, we live, dream and breathe the sport. It has been a good experience to have a month or so off which has helped us recharge our batteries. But I feel when things open up, we will have really good cricket. It will only take a couple of weeks for us to play at the top level,” he added.

Talking about the prospect of playing in empty stadiums, Carey said it would be odd to not play without fans, but it could be a way forward. “Cricket as we’re used to is going to be different for a bit. There’s the T20 World Cup and the IPL that we’re all looking to play, but it’s hard to picture anything without the fans. It’s going to be a hollow feeling, but I feel the fans will at least have some live cricket to look forward to on TV, and I can promise it’s still going to be some solid cricket which the fans are going to love,” said the left-hander, who also added that he is “looking forward to playing at Delhi’s slow wicket.”

Having started his sporting career with the Australian rules football, Carey switched back to playing full-time cricket, and says he is lucky to have made the decision. “I had some success at AFL, but I wasn’t quite excelling. I thought I wasn’t good enough, and so I went back to cricket when I was 20 or 21. There were a couple of years I didn’t play cricket at all when I was busy with AFL, so I was rusty when I came back. But by 24, I got back into cricket and into the standard that I would’ve liked to play. I put in some hard yards, and I feel I’m really fortunate that I made that decision to play cricket because I got to represent Australia,” said Carey.