He made his Test debut against South Africa at Wanderers Stadium, during which he caught a record six wickets behind the stumps in the For many years, Grout played second fiddle to Don Tallon in the Queensland state team, and was unable to cement a regular spot as wicket keeper until Tallon's retirement in 1953.

In a Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at Brisbane in 1960, he took 8 catches in an innings,[2] setting a world record.

[3] Grout reported first becoming engrossed in cricket at age seven, seeing Australia international wicket-keeper Don Tallon play at Perry Park in Brisbane.

Grout described what he felt was his biggest setback in the 1947–48 season as Tallon was playing for Australia in the Test series against India; initially hopeful for the Queensland keeper spot, he was overlooked in favour of future Australian hockey captain Douglas Siggs.

He stated: Grout finally played as keeper for Queensland in 1949 as Tallon decided to switch to spin bowling.

[11] His friend and fellow Queensland player Ken "Slasher" Mackay advised him that he lacked fitness, and that his form badly tailed off in the last session.

Grout's competitor for the Test spot was Barry Jarman, and to make matters worse, he had sustained a hairline thumb fracture.

[19] It was in South Africa that Neil Harvey gave Grout the nickname "Griz", referring to the keeper's habit of complaining ("grizzling") about poor returns from fieldsmen.

[1] This replaced the hated "Grouty"; once, when addressed this way by the then Prime Minister Robert Menzies, Grout had replied that the PM had just lost his and his wife's votes.

[22] Grout had his jaw broken while keeping to Queensland's West Indian fast-bowler Wes Hall in their match against the MCC a week before the First Test of the 1962–63 Ashes series.

In 1964 he famously refused to run out Fred Titmus when he was knocked over by an Australian fielder in the 1964 Ashes series, but sportingly let him return to the crease.

A Brisbane doctor was afterwards reported as saying that Grout knew that he might collapse at any time during the last four years of his Test career and that he took part in the Australian tour of the West Indies only a few months after a heart attack in 1964.