Michael Carberry's decision to move to Hampshire, after becoming frustrated with a lack of opportunities at Kent and Surrey, where he made just one appearance in the strong Championship-winning side of 2002, seemed to provide just the spark he needed. By 2007 Carberry, a talented left-handed opening batsman, finally appeared to have settled into his South coast home, scoring a thousand runs in the championship, a performance that earned him a call-up to the England Lions tour of India in early 2008.

Carberry performed admirably on that tour, scoring two hundreds, and was also one of three centurions in the Lions' game against New Zealand in May 2008. His reputation in domestic cricket continued to grow, and he scored 1251 runs at 69.50 in 12 County Championship in the 2009 season with four hundreds - the highlight being a a fluent 204 against Warwickshire at The Rose Bowl - until a broken finger ruled him out of the end of the campaign.

Carberry had done enough to earn him a stint with the England Performance Programme in Pretoria, South Africa, in December 2009. He impressed with a century against Gauteng, and was called up to the England squad for the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town as cover for Paul Collingwood, who was recovering from a dislocated finger. Collingwood recovered in time for Carberry's inclusion to be unnecessary, but he was included in England's squad for the Test series in Bangladesh in February and March 2010 and appeared to have moved ahead of Joe Denly as as the probable opening partner for Alastair Cook in Andrew Strauss' absence. He is also renowned as one of the best fielders in county cricket.