Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson is undertaking extra training sessions at Melwood as he pushes for a return to action against Manchester United on Oct. 20.

Players not on international duty have been given the week off by manager Jurgen Klopp, but the 27-year-old, who sustained a calf injury during the Premier League opener against Norwich City, has remained at the training complex to improve his sharpness.

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Goalkeeping coach John Achterberg has been working chiefly on Alisson's speed, reactions, distribution and power having spent the September break getting Brazil's No. 1 out on the pitches again to do catching, footwork and small passing drills.

The Premier League's Golden Glove winner for 2018-19 has progressed well through his recovery stages and has upped his strength with rehabilitation fitness coach Dave Rydings in the gym.

Liverpool had earmarked Alisson to be available after the October interval, but there is no longer such a strong need for him to return against struggling United if he is not yet at 100% given the performances of his understudy, Adrian.

The 32-year-old has been an excellent stand-in as Liverpool have recorded a perfect start to the league season, with eight wins from eight.

Adrian's form has allowed Liverpool to ease Alisson through the different phases of his rehab with no time constraints or pressure to be in line for contention.

Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, meanwhile, have voluntarily ceded time off to do additional training at Melwood.

Both midfielders have been informed they will have bigger roles to play as the games continue to come thick and fast for Liverpool.

Ajax right-back Sergino Dest has said that, as a child, he always pictured himself playing for the Dutch national side.

Dest, 18, could still pledge his allegiance to either the United States or Netherlands, despite having made two friendly appearances for the USMNT.

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He recently said he made himself unavailable for selection for both national sides in this international break in order to take more time to decide his future.

"When I thought of football when I was younger, it was always Ajax or the Dutch team," Dest said in an interview with U.S. club teammate Alex Mendez, published on the Ajax website.

"Never the U.S. But I haven't been approached by the Dutch team."

Asked whether not being contacted by the Netherlands had been a factor in his decision, he added: "Maybe."

Dest grew up in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and American father. However, Dutch has always been his first language and Dest said it was only when he visited the U.S. that he began to embrace his American heritage.

"My father is from Brooklyn, but we spoke Dutch at home," Dest said. "Actually, until a few years ago, my English was very poor.

"I wasn't thinking of my American roots at all until I went to play in an American youth team. From that moment, my English improved, and I started to feel more American.

"I realised that: 'Hey, this is my nationality, too.' Now I think it's great to be an American as well. It's an asset and as well. The U.S. passport is one of the best in the world."

In case you're not familiar with expected goals (xG) yet, the statistic is built around the idea that the majority of teams and players convert the same chances at the same frequency. For the most part, the best teams and players aren't the best because of their ability to finish a high percentage of attempts; they're the best because of their ability to generate a high volume of high-quality shots.

In other words, it puts a number on the idea that you hear managers talk about every weekend: Who created the better chances?

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Now, that isn't to say that there aren't especially skilled finishers adept at catching a ball on the half-volley or nonchalantly lobbing an onrushing keeper. But the importance of that skill pales in comparison to the importance of getting the chances in the first place.

To wit: Robert Lewandowski and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are two of the best scorers of this generation. Since the 2014 World Cup, Lewandowski has more goals in domestic play than anyone not named Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, and Aubameyang is just three spots and 15 goals behind him.

But guess what? They've each scored slightly fewer goals than expected in that stretch.

Which names pop up at the other end? Who's adding extra goals to their totals by consistently picking out the corners of the net?

Expected goals awards a value based on a number of factors, including the location of the shot, but all of those factors occur before the shot is taken. That's where Expected Goals on Target comes in. Here's how Opta describes it:

The Expected Goals on Target model is built on historical on-target shots and includes the original xG of the shot as well as the goalmouth location where the shot ended up. It gives more credit to shots that end up in the corners compared to shots that go straight down the middle of the goal. This model is for on-target shots, given that if you don't get your shot on target, there's a 0% chance that it will result in a goal.

To determine the best shooters, we can compare xG to xGOT to see which players have added the most value to their attempts. Using TruMedia data for all domestic seasons going back to the start of the 2014-15 season, we'll identify the best at a number of shots and end by identifying the best shooter of them all.

Headers

First up: There aren't many good header-ers out there! Among the top 15 players in xG from headers since 2014, a whopping zero have added any value to their attempts. If you think about it, that makes total sense.

For starters, it's a lot harder to control a ball out of the air with your head than it is to direct a ball on the ground with your foot. Headers are also pure opportunity. You don't get in better positions to head the ball; you meet the ball where it is. On top of that, think of how many headed attempts come from a player just shoving his noggin into a crowd of defenders and hoping to make contact with a cross. There's nothing wrong with that from a strategic perspective, but it's not the recipe for an efficient conversion profile.

Given all that, perhaps it's not a surprise that the award for "Best Header-er" goes to 5-foot-4 Argentinian winger Pablo de Blasis, who currently plays for Eibar in La Liga. (Here's a taste of his skills.)

Because he's so tiny, De Blasis is typically getting his head on the ball only when he's in a lot of space, but he's a master of accelerating at the last second, cutting in front of a defender and using the full force of his movement to direct the ball into the corner. He has added 2.79 expected goals to his headed attempts since 2014, and another South American winger, Juan Cuadrado, is the only other player to break two.

De Blasis has scored four goals on headers since 2014, and among players his height or shorter, the entirety of the player pool in Europe's Big Five leagues has scored five. De Blasis has attempted 35 headed shots, and no one else in the 5-foot-4-or-shorter cohort has more than 16.

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Long range

Since 2014, the average open-play shot has been converted 9.7% of the time. Move that attempt to outside the box -- beyond 18 yards -- and the number plummets to 3.2%. Managers and players have seemingly become aware of this, as the total number of shots from outside the 18 has slowly declined over the past few seasons.

One player who hasn't stopped destroying opponents from deep: Philippe Coutinho! The Brazilian playmaker has scored the second-most open-play goals from outside the penalty area and added the second-most value to his attempts since 2014. (No. 1 in both categories is the recipient of a later award.) His conversion percentage on shots from outside the box (6.1%) is nearly double the Europe-wide average. All of these shots have low xG percentages, but the xGOT rises because of all the corners Coutinho can pick out.

Just for fun: Who's the worst long-range shooter? It's Bournemouth's Jermain Defoe, who has lost 1.65 goals worth of value with the 59 shots he has attempted. Unsurprisingly, just one of them ended up in the back of the net.

Volleys

We're talking full volleys here, shots struck sweetly with the ball in flight -- none of that bouncing stuff. Interestingly, a volley is three times more likely to be converted (9.5%) than a shot from outside the box. What's also interesting: the list of the most aggressive volleyers since 2014. First is Sampdoria's ageless Fabio Quagliarella, with 101, and no one else broke 90. Second is Luis Suarez, then Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Raul Garcia, Lewandowski and then our winner: Napoli's Jose Callejon.

To anyone who has watched Napoli since Maurizio Sarri was manager from 2015 to '18, Callejon's presence won't be a surprise. He has scored the same back-post volley so many times that there is an entire Reddit thread devoted to it.

The 32-year-old Spaniard has added 2.13 goals' worth of value to his volleyed attempts. Only one other player in the top 20 of attempted volleys has added any value to his shots. Striking a ball cleanly out of the air and placing it in a corner of the net: It's a skill that really only Callejon has mastered over the past half-decade.

Free kicks

He has scored only six of them since 2014, but Christian Eriksen is our Master of Dead Balls. The nice thing about xGOT is that it credits shooters for everything they can control; not every well-hit and well-placed shot ends up in the goal, and a lot of mis-hit, poorly placed attempts find their way through a keeper's legs. Yet Eriksen has added 5.88 goals worth of value with his shooting from free kicks, and his xGOT total is 10.99.

Across the 99 shots Eriksen has attempted, opposing keepers have made a bunch of unlikely saves. PSG's Angel Di Maria has the same number of free-kick goals as Eriksen, but they came on 3.94 xGOT, while Juventus' Miralem Pjanic has scored 11 on 7.81 xGOT.

Most managers across Europe deserve a gold star here, as the majority of the players who have provided negative value on free kicks have not been allowed to take a lot of them! There are very few poor free-kick takers who get to keep taking them because of seniority or unearned reputation. However, if you're considering a bathroom break and you see Paul Pogba or Antonio Candreva lining up a dead ball -- both have taken at least 30 free kicks, and both have provided minus-0.78 of value or worse -- well, now you know what to do.

The best

I'm going to go ahead and guess that some of you have figured out who this will be. If not, here's a hint.

Messi makes Eriksen look like Micah Richards. The Argentine legend has scored 21 free-kick goals since 2014, and no one else has more than 11. His xGOT is even slightly higher than that, at 21.71. He has added 10.35 goals worth of value to his free kicks, which is nearly double Eriksen's next-best number.

These are all of Messi's free kicks since 2014. Look how many ended up in the corners. Goals are green, and misses are red:

Of course, Messi has scored the most goals (16) and added the most value (6.04) on open-play shots from outside the box, too.

How about zooming that out to include all goals from open play? He's also the best there. Messi has added 19.34 goals worth of value since 2014, and only two other players -- Mohamed Salah (11.23) and Alexis Sanchez (10.02) -- are in double digits. Messi has scored 120 open-play goals, and only two other players -- Suarez (108) and Lewandowski (101) -- are in triple digits. He has produced 109.29 xGOT, and no one else has broken 100.

Messi's case for being named the GOAT. also stems from a number of other factors. Since 2014, he has completed more than 300 through-balls; next best is 173. He leads all players in assists, and he's second in dribbles. He's as good -- if not better -- than every other player alive at facilitating attacking possession, breaking down a defender and creating for teammates. But even if you removed all of that and reset those totals to zero, he'd still probably be the best player in the world.

Throw every kind of goal together -- open play, set pieces, penalties -- and he has scored 177 since 2014, 19 more than Ronaldo in second place. Messi has added 32.6 goals worth of value on his 900 attempts, and Valencia's Dani Parejo earns a distant silver medal at 12.53. (In case you're wondering, Ronaldo has attempted more shots (1,005) than anyone else since 2014, but he has actually subtracted 3.07 goals with wayward finishing.)

So just how good is Messi? Nearly three times better than everyone else.

Trevor Hohns, Australia's national selector, has stopped short of guaranteeing David Warner his spot for the opening Test of the season following his woeful Ashes series.

Warner managed just 95 runs - the lowest tally for an opener to have batted 10 times in a series - as Stuart Broad removed him seven times.

Last week, Test captain Tim Paine, who does not have an official voice in selection, suggested that Warner's record gave him "enough credits in the bank" to secure his position at the top of the order for the series against Pakistan which starts on November 21 in Brisbane. Warner averages 59.64 in home Tests where he has made 15 of his 21 Test hundreds.

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However, ahead of the Sheffield Shield that begins on Thursday - which includes Warner's New South Wales side facing Queensland at the Gabba - Hohns did not put his full weight behind him.

"I'm not going to comment on that right now," Hohns said when asked if Warner's spot was cemented regardless of early-season form. "David knows what he has to do as well as anybody, same as Marcus Harris and any of the players that played in England. Make no bones about it, there is a couple of batting spots, two or three, up for grabs."

Warner was not the only opener to struggle in the Ashes with Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris making 102 runs between them. That pair, along with Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw and possibly Usman Khawaja, will be battling for the Test positions.

"There are plenty of openers around the country, it's up to them to perform," Hohns said. "The players who performed well [in the Ashes] know and those that didn't know and it's up to them to put performances on the board to have a chance to be chosen. If you want to relate it to the Ashes it was difficult for both countries, it seemed like the hardest place to bat. The slate is wiped clean [at home], in different conditions, but it's nice if we have in-form openers, there's no doubt about that."

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On Tuesday Warner was included in Australia's T20I squad to face Sri Lanka and Pakistan so he will have a maximum of three Sheffield Shield matches before the first Test next month.

He and Steven Smith are now back in all three formats following their bans and are inked in at the top of the T20I order, alongside captain Aaron Finch, as Australia begin a year-long build-up to the men's T20 World Cup next October.

Hohns acknowledged that the selectors would keep a close eye on the workload of those players who appear across all formats. After the home Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand there is a one-day series in India, a limited-overs tour of South Africa, a home one-day series with New Zealand then a T20I series across the Tasman to complete the season.

"That'll be something we'll be very mindful of as the season goes on," Hohns said. "It's difficult for players to play every format, which [Smith and Warner] in particular and probably Pat Cummins and a couple of them are likely to do. But we'll certainly be keeping an eye on their workloads and making sure they don't get tired. Obviously there is a massive focus on this T20 World Cup in 12 months' time."

Rematch of Nantes final as Sobhy meets Serme again
By SEAN REUTHE – Squash Mad Correspondent

United States No.1 Amanda Sobhy booked her place in the quarter-finals of the FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships after beating India’s Joshna Chinappa in straight games earlier today at the PSA Platinum event taking place at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.

Sobhy is the only remaining US player in the draw and had been struggling with an adductor injury in the build-up to the event – pulling out of the Oracle NetSuite Open a fortnight ago – while the injury still looked to be troubling her during her second round fixture with fellow American Olivia Fiechter.

However, the Boston-based Harvard-graduate looked far more comfortable on court against Chinappa as she blew the World No.12 away in games two and three after sneaking a win in the opening game.

She will play No.2 seed Camille Serme in the next round, a month after losing to the Frenchwoman in the Open de France final.

“The whole point of pulling out early in San Francisco was so I could compete at this tournament,” said Sobhy afterwards.

“I might not be where I want to be injury or health-wise, but I’m pretty pleased with my performance. I know how deadly Joshna can be, but my second round match gave me some confidence and I know that I can still play and move even if both legs aren’t fully functional. I’m really happy with today.

“I think both Camille and I played really well in France and it was probably some of the hottest conditions that we’ve ever played in. Even though I lost that, it’s a battle I will remember and it gives you confidence that you can play at that level, but hopefully third time is the charm against her.”

Serme, the 2016 U.S. Open champion, was up against Hong Kong’s Annie Au a year on from beating her in straight games at the same stage of last year’s tournament and, while she dropped a game this time around, the 30-year-old dominated for large periods of their 36-minute fixture.

The Creteil-based 30-year-old raced to an 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-2 victory and will now turn her attention to overcoming Sobhy in the last eight for a second year running.

“Annie’s always tough to play, she has a type of game where she is lobbing and dropping really well,” Serme said.

“She did it really well in the third and I lost a bit of my focus as well, so I really wanted to get a good start in the fourth. She slowed down the pace and I like to play fast, so it’s a different tactical game, but it’s always good to have different types of games on the tour.”

World No.9 Tesni Evans and World No.5 Nouran Gohar were the other players to win on day four, with comfortable victories against Joey Chan and Salma Hany, respectively. Evans and Gohar will now go head-to-head for a place in the last four.

In the men’s event, defending champion Mohamed ElShorbagy advanced to the quarter-finals courtesy of an 11-6, 11-7, 12-10 win over New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson

The World No.2 – still unbeaten this season after title wins at the China Open and Oracle NetSuite Open – will compete in his 10th successive U.S. Open quarter-final and will take on the man he beat in last year’s semi-finals, New Zealand’s Paul Coll.

“I’m really happy to be back here in the quarters, the U.S. Open is one of the most prestigious tournaments on the calendar,” ElShorbagy said.

“It’s a Platinum event and we all aim for these. It’s our [ElShorbagy and Grayson] first time playing against each other and we have even only practised against each other once or twice. He came to Bristol before the British Open in May and he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met in my life.

“Paul has been doing really well and he had a really good end of season, especially his couple of matches with [Ali] Farag [last season] and he obviously kept improving. He hasn’t lost a match so far this season, and I think we are the only two players to have done that so far. Unfortunately one of us will have to lose and hopefully it isn’t me.”

World No.5 Coll achieved his quarter-final berth after coming back from a game down against Egypt’s Mazen Hesham in the day’s standout fixture. The one and only time these two players have met on the PSA Tour came in a five-game thriller at the British Open in May, with Hesham twice fighting back to push the match right to the death before Coll eventually took the win in 74 minutes.

However, on this occasion it was the Egyptian who started the brighter of the two as he took the first game. Coll soon settled into his game plan though to take the second game for the loss of two points before a tight third and fourth also went in the favour of the Kiwi player.

“He makes you feel pretty average on there,” said Coll afterwards. “It’s very hard to settle into any kind of rhythm. I was feeling really good coming into this match in my short game, but he puts you on edge with his skill and racket speed. I’m happy to get through that in four and looking forward to training tomorrow and playing on Thursday.”

Germany’s Simon Rösner also booked his place in the last eight after ousting the tenacious Egyptian Zahed Salem and he will compete against World No.3 Tarek Momen, who put in a composed performance to get the better of Rösner’s compatriot, Raphael Kandra.

The quarter-finals begin on Wednesday October 9, with play beginning at 18:00 (GMT-4). All action will be shown live from Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Center on SQUASHTV (rest of world), Eurosport Player (Europe only) and the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour (excluding Europe & Japan).

However, the quarter-final fixture between top seed Ali Farag and Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez will no longer go ahead after the latter was forced to pull out of the match due to a calf injury. Farag receives a walkover into the semi-final. 

FS Investments US Open 2019, Daskalakis Athletic Center, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA. (PSA World Tour Platinum – Equal prize money: $185,500 for both men and women).

Men’s Third Round (Bottom Half): 
[3] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Raphael Kandra (GER) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 12-10 (36m)
[5] Simon Rösner (GER) bt Zahed Salem (EGY) 3-1: 11-4, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7 (57m)
[6] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Mazen Hesham (EGY) 3-1: 6-11, 11-2, 12-10, 11-8 (64m)
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) bt Campbell Grayson (NZL) 3-0: 11-6, 11-7, 12-10 (42m)

Men’s Quarter-Finals (Top Half today):
[1] Ali Farag (EGY) v [8] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) Walkover to Farag
[7] Diego Elias (PER) v [4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
Bottom Half (tomorrow):
[3] Tarek Momen (EGY) v [5] Simon Rösner (GER)
[6] Paul Coll (NZL) v [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY)

Women’s Third Round (Bottom Half):
[3] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt [13] Salma Hany (EGY) 3-0: 11-2, 11-8, 11-3 (31m)
[8] Tesni Evans (WAL) bt [16] Joey Chan (HKG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-3 (22m)
[7] Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt [12] Joshna Chinappa (IND) 3-0: 12-10, 11-6, 11-7 (32m)
[2] Camille Serme (FRA) bt [9] Annie Au (HKG) 3-1: 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-2 (36m)

Women’s Quarter-Finals (Top Half, today):
[1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) v [6] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
Rowan Elaraby (EGY) v [4] Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
Bottom Half (tomorrow):
[3] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v [8] Tesni Evans (WAL)
[7] Amanda Sobhy (USA) v [2] Camille Serme (FRA) 

Report by SEAN REUTHE (PSA). Edited by ALAN THATCHER.

Pictures courtesy of PSA

Playing conditions in the age of the World Test Championship are less likely to be stacked in favour of the home team, according to South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

Currently preparing to play the second Test in a three-match series in India, du Plessis and his team have been pleasantly surprised with the pitches, which are less hostile than they were on South Africa's last tour in 2015.

Back then, South Africa faced a trial by spin and lost two of the three non-rain-affected matches inside three days. The Nagpur surface was rated poor on the evidence of variable bounce, turn and pace, and South Africa's batsmen were completely undone, which led to them losing a first series on the road in nine years and their No. 1 ranking.

"We didn't get 20 wickets the first Test and that's something I don't want to do again" Faf du Plessis

In response, South Africa prepared revenge strips - green tops - for India's visit in 2017 and earned their own premier pitch at Wanderers a fine for excessively steep and unpredictable bounce. The venue remains under warning until 2023 but du Plessis thinks such tactics are unlikely to continue thanks to the new championship.

"That's the big thing the Test championship has changed. In the past, if you had a below-average pitch, you got a warning, whereas now you get deducted points," du Plessis said in the lead up to the Pune Test.

He is only partially correct, because the home side will only lose points if the match is abandoned because of an unfair pitch, but the broader point stands. Home sides are less likely to ask for anything that could result in their line-up being disadvantaged by conditions because they would not want to risk losing any points.

"Home games are going to be very important. We knew coming here, India will always be a tough place to play, but you've got to make sure you get your points at home," du Plessis said. "It's not as obvious as making wickets like that [to suit the home side] anywhere, like what it was in 2015."

That much was evident in Visakhapatnam, where the pitch started off slow, flattened out and then took turn later on. It remained possible to score runs and take wickets throughout and produced a compelling encounter, which India won convincingly. Du Plessis expected Pune to have slightly more in it for the hosts. "The turf is a little bit more red, more spinning conditions, so expecting the ball to spin a little bit more from the straight. I am not a pitch expert but I think it will take a bit more turn than the first Test."

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That will affect how South Africa select their XI, which came under some scrutiny for including three frontline spinners in Visakhapatnam, two of whom were largely ineffective. Dane Piedt looks most likely to lose his place if South Africa are after an injection of pace with either Lungi Ngidi or Anrich Nortje, which may help with their big-picture goal of bowling India out twice. "We are thinking what's going to be our most aggressive options to get 20 wickets," du Plessis said. "We didn't get 20 wickets the first Test and that's something I don't want to do again. We are planning for a pitch that will be a bit drier and that will spin."

While that means Keshav Maharaj and Senuran Muthusamy, if he plays, will be expected to do most of the wicket-taking, South Africa will also look at the way Mohammed Shami bowled in the first Test to inspire their quicks.

"KG [Kagiso Rabada] and Vern [Philander] are masters in their conditions, they have proved that but any cricketer, not just bowlers, tries to learn from players in their own conditions," du Plessis said. "Shami ran in with a lot of intensity, a bit quicker than in the first innings, and things happened a little quicker off the pitch. Also, learning from the lengths that he bowled. He is a guy that hits the stumps a lot. That's something we want to make sure we are better at. In the first innings, we were too wide and they scored quite frequently square of the wicket."

South Africa had few answers to Shami's burst on the fifth morning, which they could not blame on conditions. But as a line-up, they still lasted beyond lunch on the final day and proved to themselves that conditions are not unplayable in the new, Test-championship era.

"The difference with us from 2015, where you try and survive in Indian spinning conditions and with that sometimes you can become too defensive and you allow the opposition to be on top of you the whole time, now it needs to be a good combination of positive play, an element of taking risks at some stages of the game to try and counter that pressure from the bowling. The balance between attack and defense is key when you are playing in the subcontinent."

Brisbane Heat have continued their recruiting bonanza for this summer's BBL signing England young gun Tom Banton.

The explosive right-hander, who has been recently called up to England's T20I squad for the tour of New Zealand, becomes the fourth overseas signing for the Heat behind AB de Villiers and Afghanistan spin duo Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Zahir Khan.

Under BBL rules only two overseas players can play in any team at one time but additional replacements are allowed to be named.

Brisbane Heat will split their four overseas players across two halves of the tournament. With de Villiers set to stay in South Africa for Christmas, Banton is likely to play the first eight games before he is likely to be needed for England's white-ball tour of South Africa in February. Zahir Khan will also play the first half of the tournament with Banton before de Villiers and Mujeeb Ur Rahman replace the pair for the second half.

If the Heat make it that far, de Villiers and Mujeeb will also play in the finals.

Banton, 20, was the second leading run-scorer in this season's T20 Blast in England, tallying 549 runs at a staggering strike-rate of 161.47. He made four half-centuries and a blistering 51-ball century against Kent.

He has experience playing club cricket in Australia in Perth and has played alongside Heat batsman Matt Renshaw for Somerset.

Banton's recruitment is another coup for Heat general manager Andrew McShea and new coach Darren Lehmann. The latter spent part of the winter in the UK and said Banton's form was irresistible.

"He was the talk of English cricket during their season,'' Lehmann said. "Outside the Ashes, Tom was the player that a lot of people were really excited to be watching, and with good reason.

"He's a lovely striker of the ball and has that wide and varied range of shots you need to make the most of the early overs in the Power Play or to accelerate the scoring through the middle and back half of an innings.

"The prospect of pairing him alongside some of our young batsmen like Max Bryant, his mate Matt Renshaw, and Sam Heazlett is pretty enticing, that's for sure. But we know Tom will also benefit from playing and being around the likes of Chris Lynn, Joe Burns, Ben Cutting, and Marnus Labuschagne as he takes steps to expand his skills and experience in Australian conditions.

"He's joining us for the first half of the tournament but we're hopeful he will have some time to catch-up with AB de Villiers at some point as that would be a great opportunity as part of his experience with the Heat."

Banton was thrilled with the opportunity to play in the BBL.

"If you had asked me at the start of the summer would I imagine it going like this, I would have probably had a laugh and suggested you weren't serious,'' Banton said. "I was blown away when it was announced last week that AB was coming to join the Heat so what was already going to be a huge experience just got bigger.

"I'm really looking forward to coming to Brisbane and seeing what Queensland has to offer after previously playing club cricket in Perth when I was younger. I've watched a fair bit of the BBL at home and it is a quality competition with so many outstanding players. I can't wait, to be honest."

The news comes just a day after the Melbourne Stars announced they had signed South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn for a six-game stint at the start of the tournament.

Australian cricket loves a coronation.

Two highly-coveted crowns are the Test captaincy and the Test wicketkeeper. Tim Paine currently holds both, and has just retained the Ashes, yet there is a clamour to anoint Alex Carey as the heir. But while all the conversations happen around him, Carey knows all too well, through losing his dream of playing professional football in the Australian Football League, to an initial false start in professional cricket as a batsman only with South Australia, that there are no guarantees in sport or life.

"I appreciate the support of people who have put my name forward," Carey told ESPNcricinfo. "But I'm lucky enough to learn in my sporting journey so far that until your name is picked in a team then anything can change. I see it as something that I've dreamed about doing, playing Test cricket, and something I'm playing cricket for is to get better and be that No.1 wicketkeeper in Australia and the world. But until that happens things can change really quickly.

"I'm pretty lucky to be in the white-ball squads so that's keeping me pretty busy. I'm loving that at the moment. Learning that role through the middle order, which is something I haven't done a lot of, so I want to get better at that role in finishing games off for Australia, like an MS Dhoni or a Jos Buttler does. I've got lots of things I'm working on."

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Carey's greatest challenge is how to gain more experience in first-class cricket. Due to his role as the T20I and ODI wicketkeeper and vice-captain he played just two Shield matches for South Australia last summer. His last was in early December 2018, where he made just his second first-class century against New South Wales.

He managed to play two first-class games in England a couple of months ago, just the 30th and 31st of his career. The first with Sussex was in the midst of his stint in the T20 Blast and the second as a late call-up to Australia's tour game against Derbyshire. Carey made consecutive half-centuries for Sussex and relished the chance to play some long-form cricket.

"It was something I always wanted to do was to play some County Championship cricket so I was lucky enough to do that, but we didn't have too much time to prepare," he said. "It's probably similar to this first Shield game. It's all been a lot of one-day and T20 cricket leading up and then get out the red balls a couple days before and make sure you're leaving the right ones and playing the right ones."

"If I sit down for an hour with him and have a coffee, more times than not we don't talk about the game too much" Alex Carey on his friendship with Adam Gilchrist

Carey has found the mental shift to long-form cricket more difficult than the technical.

"Batting-wise it's just mindset," he said. "You can bat all day and be really disciplined and patient and not get ahead of yourself. I found in white-ball cricket I learned that there's a lot more time than you think. And with the red ball, it's being disciplined for long enough."

Carey's batting record in first-class cricket doesn't jump off the page with just two centuries in 55 innings and an average of 31.38. What that doesn't account for is the adjustment he has had to make batting in the lower order. He started life in grade cricket in Adelaide as a top-order batsman for Glenelg. Batting at No.7 as a wicketkeeper has required a recalibration in terms of learning how to play to the situation.

"I think it's trusting my game. If we're five down for not many you always think 'if I get out, there's not a lot more to come,' so it's trusting my game and not worrying about if we lose a wicket, exposing the bowlers. But I've also got to keep playing my shots because I think that's the best way I play."

Carey has many outstanding mentors in his corner. South Australia coach Jamie Siddons has been one of his key backers over recent years and Carey said his coach often encourages him to play with positive intent. "He's a really good guy, I like to talk to about being fearless, playing with freedom, playing with confidence," Carey said. "He's been really supportive of my game."

Siddons believes Carey has the technique and the temperament for Test cricket even if he did wish he could buy him more time to play more first-class games for South Australia.

"If they throw him into all forms, and in Test cricket, it will be a challenge." Siddons told ESPNcricinfo. "But his technique and everything is up for it. He hasn't played many four-day games. It's been a really quick rise. He'll survive. He'll thrive in that environment, I've got no doubt."

Carey also credited Australia coach Justin Langer and batting coach Graeme Hick in terms of his technical development, which could be seen during his outstanding World Cup.

"I've loved working with Justin Langer in this short amount of time," Carey said. "I think he's improved my technique. We did a lot of technical work making sure I've got a sound game for all three formats now and I think that's really been helped along with Graeme Hick. Even with the white ball, I speak to Hicky a lot about staying calm. You can come in with two or three overs to go but you've still got to stay calm and watch the ball and normally I score as well as I do when going out and trying to hit every ball for six."

Former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has been vital to his glovework. Carey broke the Sheffield Shield dismissal record in the 2016-17 season with 59 but he said his keeping has come on again since working with Haddin and he will continue to do so even though Haddin has stepped back from his Australian assistant coaching role.

"The short time I've been in the Australian system he's been incredible. I said to him if he's not working with us I still need to catch up and have a catch."

Carey also counts Australia's greatest wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist as a mentor and a friend, but the pair rarely talk technique whenever they catch up over coffee.

"It's a bit of weird one. I don't ask too much for advice about my technique, how am I catching them, how am I hitting them, it's more about how are you enjoying it and how's everything off the field. It's normally just getting me in a good mental state of going out and playing with some fun and some freedom. Obviously, that's the way he did it and he did pretty well. If I sit down for an hour with him and have a coffee, more times than not we don't talk about the game too much."

Getting away from what can be an all-consuming game is a challenge for some players but Carey has no trouble. His world revolves around his young son Louis and his wife Eloise. "Louis has changed my world. Come home from a day of cricket, good or bad, he takes my mind off it straight away."

A crown Carey would love is a Sheffield Shield title, but whether he gets that chance in his increasingly demanding schedule is a different question. He played in back-to-back Shield finals in 2016 and 2017 but failed to win the title on both occasions. He could play four games prior to Christmas for South Australia around six T20Is for Australia.

"I'm really excited," he said. "If we can play our best cricket it's definitely good enough. It wasn't too long ago we played in back-to-back finals and just fell short. Last year was quite a tough year. It's time to start putting our hands up and winning games for South Australia."

Australia Women 1 for 196 (Healy 112*, Haynes 63) beat Sri Lanka 8 for 195 (Atapattu 103, Wareham 2-18, Schutt 2-44) by nine wickets

Alyssa Healy continued her prolific run-scoring form by plundering a 71-ball hundred on her way to an unbeaten 76-ball 112 as Australia surged to a record-breaking 18th ODI victory in a row with a nine-wicket hammering of Sri Lanka.

Chamari Atapattu's 103, her fifth ODI hundred and her second century of the tour following her T20I ton in Sydney, anchored Sri Lanka's effort but the next-best score was 24 and they could still only post 8 for 195, which proved way short of giving Australia a challenge. A 3-0 series result was nothing less than expected, but Australia's ruthlessness was impressive.

Healy and Rachael Haynes, who backed up her maiden ODI century with 63 to take her tally to 237 runs in the series, cruised towards the target - although both were dropped in the same over off Achini Kulasuriya - before Haynes was out sweeping with 37 runs needed.

Healy raced off the blocks in the chase and Australia's fifty came up in the sixth over. She should have been dismissed on 68 but the chance was spilled at deep midwicket and Haynes was then given a life on 39, but even if held it's unlikely the result would have differed.

Healy's third ODI hundred, which have all come in the last two years during which time she has averaged 57.15, came with captain Meg Lanning alongside her and a match-winning six was a fitting way for Australia to set their new record, surpassing the 17 wins in a row they managed between 1997 and 1999 under the captaincy of Belinda Clark.

For the first time in the series, Sri Lanka were able to set a target and there was a promising foundation at 1 for 68 before Harshitha Madavi was smartly run out by Healy's direct hit as she ran around from behind the stumps after a badly misjudged single. They slumped to 5 for 87 as Georgia Wareham struck twice, but Atapattu held firm.

She added 49 with Ama Kanchana and 47 with Oshadi Ranasinghe, bringing up an impressive hundred off 120 deliveries, to put a seal on a tour where she has been head and shoulders above the rest of Sri Lanka's batting.