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Australia's glovesman Alex Carey has taken plenty of inspiration from watching South African captain and wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock in action.
Alex Carey wants to one day be a triple-threat for Australia and has taken inspiration from South Africa's star skipper Quinton de Kock.
No man has shouldered more responsibility in the Proteas' new era than de Kock, who is juggling batting, wicketkeeping and captaining across all three formats.
Having taken over from Faf du Plessis, de Kock has led from the front during a difficult summer with trademark aggression and plenty of runs.
Australia's ODI and T20 glovesman and vice-captain Carey is also viewed as a future national leader and has taken plenty of inspiration from the marquee South African.
"He's been a fantastic player at international level for a number of years now," Carey said ahead of Australia's second ODI against South Africa in Bloemfontein.
"I really enjoyed my taste of batting, keeping and captaincy for the Strikers in the early stage of the (BBL) and for a couple of Shield games.
"It's one part I want to keep improving and get opportunities to do so, if it happens or not.
"He's one guy who's done it really well, Tim Paine is another one obviously with the Test side ... it's nice to captain teams and that small taste, I really enjoyed it."
Eager to soak up every bit of knowledge he can, Carey reckons he'll be residing in Ricky Ponting's pocket when he links up with the Australian great in the IPL.
Carey will get his first taste of IPL action when he joins the Ponting-coached Delhi Capitals next month.
He relished the opportunity to learn from Ponting when the former Test skipper served as an assistant coach during Australia's World Cup campaign last year.
"I loved working with Punter, he was fantastic," Carey said.
"He's really calm, he's really clear with his messaging.
"I just can't wait, even if I'm not playing, to just sit alongside him and chat cricket with him. I'll probably hang out of his pocket for the few months that I'm there."
While firmly established as Australia's first-choice wicketkeeper in the white-ball formats, Carey concedes he's likely to be relegated to the outfield for Delhi behind Indian star Rishabh Pant.
"I'm not sure, but I'd say he'd get first crack at it," Carey said.
"He's done pretty well before in the IPL.
"I enjoy running around, try and have lots of energy and get the arm warm (but) my shoulder's not too strong."
Carey's focus in the meantime is Wednesday's ODI in Bloemfontein, with Australia looking to level the series after a 74-run loss in Paarl.
"We were pretty honest in the rooms afterwards," he said.
"(Aaron Finch) doesn't like to dwell too long on results like that but we need to take the learnings out of that game."
