Home Sports Michael Clarke: Australia captain on course for first India Test

Michael Clarke: Australia captain on course for first India Test

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Michael Clarke: Australia captain on course for first India Test
Michael Clarke: Australia captain on course for first India Test

5 December 2014: Australia captain Michael Clarke is on course to play in next week’s first Test against India in Adelaide after he came through a training session.

Clarke, 33, who has been struggling with a hamstring injury, gave a moving eulogy for team-mate Phillip Hughes at the batsman’s funeral on Wednesday.

But he showed no reaction to the injury during a session in Sydney.

“As long as he’s fine to do the running and can bat he’ll play,” Australia coach Darren Lehmann said.

“We’ll get him batting on Saturday and see how he goes. We’ll be guided by medical staff, the captain himself and selectors.”

Australia captain Michael Clarke: “We must dig in and get through to tea. And we must play on”

Opener Hughes, 25, died in hospital two days after being hit by a short-pitched delivery during a domestic Sheffield Shield game.

Clarke and the entire squad attendedHughes’s funeral in Macksville in New South Wales on Wednesday, and the skipper was due to fly to Adelaide to join the rest of the squad on Friday afternoon to prepare for the Test which begins on Tuesday.

Hamstring problems kept Clarke out of October’s one-day series with Pakistan and the bulk of last month’s one-day series against South Africa.

Lehmann says “mentally strong” Clarke is to keen to lead the team in the first match of the four-Test series although the coach will allow grieving players to miss if they did not feel up to it.

Meanwhile, former Australia fast bowler Merv Hughes has called for pacemen to send down an early bouncer in the Test to “clear the air” in the wake of the death of his namesake.

“There’s been bouncers bowled over 100 years of cricket and this was an isolated incident,” said the 53-year-old.

“The longer it goes without someone bowling a bouncer, the more it’s going to be on people’s minds.”

Meanwhile, pace bowler Sean Abbott, who delivered the ball which felled Hughes, has yet to decide whether he will play in NSW’s Sheffield Shield match with South Australia at the weekend.

NSW chief executive Andrew Jones said: “He’s in the same boat as everybody else. It’s a matter for him to see what he wants to do so we’ll let him make that decision.”

Source : BBC Sport

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