Alex Carey has paid tribute to his wife's support during the Jonny Bairstow stumping controversy as he looks to play in front of an English crowd for the first time since the incident.
After a drawn T20 International series, the Australian men's cricket team will play England in the first of five one-day international matches tonight at Trent Bridge.
Carey did not feature in the shorter format but as illness and injuries sweep the team, he is in-line to sport the wicketkeeping gloves for the ODI.
A little more than a year on from the drama-filled 2023 Ashes series, Carey told ABC Sport he expected the crowd to once again be a little spicy.
"Hopefully, yeah. It always is though, no matter the format, so I'm looking forward to it," he said.
"I still remember the 2019 World Cup when Smudge and Davey came back from their time off.
"The match wasn't even against the Poms [it was against Afghanistan] but the English crowd were happy to offer their advice and comments about it."
Given 14 months have passed since Carey dismissed his English opponent, some may ask – why haven't we moved on yet?
Well, the latest season of 'The Test' in Australia followed up by the ECB's own docuseries 'Our Take' has re-ignited the conversation in recent months about the infamous moment.
Carey himself says he has accepted it now as something he'll never be able to shake.
However, he hopes he can prove Stuart Broad's claims wrong that he'll never be remembered for anything else during his time playing for Australia.
"I think it's one of those things that will be spoken about for a long time, and it doesn't bother me that it is," Carey said.
"We all have our opinions on it and from the Australian side, there was never a thought of calling him back. Would we do it differently? No. It's just one of those things.
"It was an amazing series as a whole and for that incident to still be brought up … I've said it before, I was pretty happy with the stumping, so I'm looking forward to going back to England.
"Hopefully there's some other things good that happen in my career though and if not, it'll give me some opportunities to do some Sporties nights down the line."
Something the latest season of 'The Test' highlighted was how Australian captain Pat Cummins identified Bairstow was leaving his crease early not long before the stumping took place — encouraging Carey to have a crack.
Moments later, that plan came to fruition and Bairstow was forced to walk back to the sheds.
Carey believes the one thing that has been missed in the ongoing worldwide discussion about the dismissal is just how tactically sound it was.
"It all sort of happened very quickly out in the middle and it was genius for us to pick up on that and execute it," he said.
"The backlash from it obviously was surprising but the actual tactical part of the game there is something that's been missed. How sharp it was from the captain and guys around the bat, then myself to follow through.
"All the discussion has been about whether it should have happened in the first place, but I think what's been missed is just how tactically smart it was."
Another key theme featured in 'The Test' was the intense backlash that followed.
Even though the media storm had Carey at its centre, he says he didn't get a full understanding of what had been said until he watched it back.
"I actually didn't see a lot of the commentary – or most of it at least – until I watched The Test doco and it was really highlighted," Carey said.
"I was aware there was some things being said of course but I was there with my family, we've got two young kids, so they were keeping me pretty busy.
"We were playing back-to-back games of high-pressure cricket, so honestly, once that game was done, we were onto the next Test and you're worrying about playing cricket for your country.
"Look, it's never nice hearing things spoken about yourself, but more importantly [I had an issue with] the personal attacks on my family.
"It was unwarranted and disappointing to see that."
Carey was forced to shut down his social media account and police were reportedly called into investigate some of the online abuse as well as a death threat sent his way.
Although the players are used to being criticised at the elite level, Carey said the commentary went too far and the trolling of his family was uncalled for.
"I think initially it's quite shocking to see that sort of stuff," he said.
"My wife Eloise was there, she was an amazing support to me, always has been.
"She's an amazing mum and was doing all the heavy lifting while I was away on tour, playing with the kids.
"That mostly kept her busy, but once she read a few of those things … Some of it was pretty gross … I had to make sure I supported her as well – that's my job.
"She's been incredible, the kids were too young [to understand] anything but probably heard some new words in the crowd that they hadn't before."
Asked how he might explain the whole saga to his children Louis (six) and Clementine (three) in 10 years' time when they are old enough to comprehend it all, Carey stopped to think.
"Um … It's a good question, I haven't really thought about that.
"I'd probably downplay it like I have most of the time as just a cricket incident.
"Show them some clips of Leeds where the fans all stood up and took their shoes off and some of the chants.
"Then probably show them the haircut scandal … And say it was all pretty farcical."
