Melbourne, Jan 26 (IANS) Australia’s stand-in captain Michael Clarke feels he can turn around his form before the cricket World Cup starting Feb 19.
The 29-year-old Clarke is desperate to play with the authority expected of an Australian skipper and vindicate the ‘nice’ vote of confidence.
‘I would like to lead from the front with the bat and make some more runs. I have had a lot of support from a lot of people over the past few months. I am confident I can turn my form around,’ said Clarke, who has made 55 runs in the three matches of the current one-day series against England.
‘Right now, I am copping a fair bit of stick but, when it comes to cricket, it is fair enough as I haven’t been performing as well as you need to perform being vice-captain and captain of the Australian one-day team,’ he was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.
Clarke said he will not change his usual batting order of No.4.
‘I have batted No.4 for a long time and think that is where I play my best one-day cricket. It is where Ricky Ponting and the team want me to bat,’ Clarke said.
‘I think myself at No.4, Cameron White at No.5, David Hussey at No.6 and Steve Smith at No.7 – that part of the order will play a big part in the World Cup, facing a lot of spin bowling on pretty slow wickets.’
Clarke also refused to give up his Twitter habit, revealing it was Cricket Australia that got him hooked on the social network in the first place.
‘You will have to ask Cricket Australia. They introduced me to Twitter, organised me to be on Twitter and set it all up for me to get to fans and get as many people watching cricket and supporting cricket as possible. I have enjoyed it, to be honest. It is not a concern at this stage,’ he said.
