With Key absent for the majority of the season, Carberry opened the batting in most of the matches he played, making 14 appearances[9] and having a number of different opening partners, ranging from Key, James Tredwell, David Fulton and Greg Blewett.

[10] He played a handful of List A matches in his first season with Kent; in that format he was used as both a middle-order and opening batsman.

[6] This season saw Carberry make his maiden List A half century, a score of 79[14] against Worcestershire in the 2003 National League.

[10] He performed well in that season's tour match against the New Zealanders, scoring 75 runs and sharing a 117-run partnership with Geraint Jones.

[14] He again featured for Kent in the 2004 Twenty20 Cup, although he performed poorly in that season's competition, scoring 15 runs at an average of just 3.75.

[9] He followed this up by making his limited-overs debut for the county against Ireland in the Cheltenham & Gloucester at Castle Avenue, Dublin.

[6] He firmly established himself in the Hampshire side in 2006, making 15 first-class appearances, in which he scored 938 runs at an average of 36.04,[10] which included two centuries against Warwickshire[25] and Middlesex.

[29] His performances in the 2007 saw Carberry named as the Hampshire Cricket Society Player of the Year,[30] as well as seeing him selected for the England Lions tour of India.

[33] His total number of runs by August in the County Championship were third overall, behind Marcus Trescothick and Mark Ramprakash.

Ten years after first playing List A cricket, Carberry also scored his maiden century in that format, making an unbeaten 121 against Ireland in the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy, with Carberry sharing in a Hampshire record partnership for the 3rd wicket in List A cricket of 260 with Sean Ervine.

[19] His rich form led to speculation that he could be called up to the England squad for the deciding 5th Ashes Test as a replacement for the poorly performing Ravi Bopara.

In a County Championship match against Nottinghamshire, Carberry had made 86 runs before being forced to retire his innings after being struck by an Andre Adams delivery, which broke his left ring finger, ruling him out for the rest of that season.

[36] Despite missing the second half of the season, Carberry was again named as Hampshire Cricket Society Player of the Year.

[10] However, his form in limited-overs cricket was consistent as in previous seasons, with him scoring 346 runs in 12 matches, at an average of 34.60.

[39] Despite this, Hampshire tied with Somerset's score, but won the match on the basis of having lost fewer wickets in doing so.

Carberry's health was seriously affected, when in November 2010 he was diagnosed with blood clots on his lungs which ruled him out of travelling to Australia with the England Performance Programme.

[41] The partnership with McKenzie was also the highest for any wicket for Hampshire, surpassing the 411 set by Robert Poore and Teddy Wynyard in 1899.

[42] On 7 August 2013 Carberry hit his first T20 century as he reached 100 (not out) against Lancashire in the 2013 Friends Life Quarter Final.

[50][51] In August 2009, he was once again called up to the England Lions team to play Australia in a two-day match at the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury.

He played a single List A match against Pakistan A at the DSC Cricket Stadium, in which he was dismissed for a duck by Abdur Rehman.

He made 34 in the second-innings, before being dismissed by Abdur Razzak, with England winning the match by 181 runs.

He demonstrated his highly rated fielding by initiating the run out of Naeem Islam in the Bangladesh first-innings.

Even though the remainder of the tour was frustrating for Carberry, as he was unable to convert a number of good starts into significant scores, he did finish the Ashes series with the third highest English batting average, above the likes of Root, Bell and Cook.