adminAustralia 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.”
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 attended Hughes’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 yesterday 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 the match if they do 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 struck Hughes, has yet to decide whether he will play in NSW’s next Sheffield Shield match against Queensland, which also begins next Tuesday.
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.” — BBC Sport
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter