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Australia's captain Michael Clarke
is expected to promote himself to the pivotal No. 3 spot in the ODI
batting order for the matches against Afghanistan and Pakistan in the
UAE, with Michael Hussey's return to add greater ballast to the touring middle order.
Clarke walked to the crease at No. 3 in both the trial matches played
during Australia's pre-season camp in Darwin, and ESPNcricinfo
understands that he is now inked to remain there as the team's best
limited overs option in the position.
Having returned from parental leave that ruled him out of the dire ODI
tour of England, Hussey will bat at Nos. 4 or 5, leaving the Twenty20
captain George Bailey and David Hussey to round out the top six.
Since Ricky Ponting lost form and was dropped from the ODI team during
the triangular series last Australian summer, No. 3 has been something
of a problem position for the limited overs team, as the vice-captain
Shane Watson, Peter Forrest, Bailey and Matthew Wade have all been tried
there with limited degrees of success.
When fit, Clarke has retained the No. 4 spot he occupied beneath Ponting for some years, and in England
did so despite the clear inadequacy of Forrest in particular to handle
the challenges posed by the home attack. At the time, Clarke and the
coach Mickey Arthur believed that Hussey's absence from the middle order
meant the captain could not afford to be any higher than No. 4, the
better to have some influence on the later passages of an innings.
Clarke has a sound ODI record in his limited appearances at No. 3,
averaging 36.20 in 18 matches and making one century, an unbeaten 111
against India in Vizag in 2010, when he was stand-in captain. He is now
set to make the move a permanent one.
Australia's acting coach for the first part of the tour, Steve Rixon,
said the tourists would be playing their best team against Afghanistan
and Pakistan, intent on building consistency and confidence in the ODI
unit. The series follows a 12-month period that has veered from strong
results in Sri Lanka and South Africa, to a halting triumph in the
triangular series at home, a shared encounter in the West Indies and the
abject 4-0 defeat in England.
"We've got one tournament leading into another, which a lot of these
guys will be doubling up in, from [ODIs] here into T20 over here into
the big one over in Sri Lanka," Rixon said. "So we are conscious of
that, however, first things first we need to win these one dayers so
we'll be looking at our very best side. We need to look at the wicket,
see exactly what we've got … when we see what the wicket looks like
we'll assess our options, and our options are pretty good at the moment.
"You have to really be looking at your own backyard, and our own
backyard is how we're going to play best in these conditions. Regardless
of the opposition, it's how David Warner is going to combat a turning
wicket, or how Michael Clarke's going to play against the opposition in
Dubai, that's the way we set ourselves up."
The opening match against Afghanistan will be a chance for the
Australians to witness how quickly the strife-torn country has developed
a brave and opportunistic limited overs team. Though he expected the
tourists to win, Rixon said he and the players were enlivened by the
chance to encounter a rising nation.
"Afghanistan has come in as a minor competitor, but they are competing
at the top level, so we've got to go in with a lot of respect for the
opposition, but we'd like to think we go in with the upper hand to be
able to beat them in these conditions with the side we have," Rixon
said. "I like the idea that minor nations are getting the opportunity to
come in and play against the big boys, I think that's great for cricket
and the culture of the game.
"We've only just got some [videos] recently so I'll have a little look
at that. I'm sure they'll go in with a 'we've got nothing to lose'
attitude, which is an outstanding way to play it, but we're also going
in as a side that's been No. 1 for a long time and we want to get back
to No. 1 and make every post a winner. We have to do what we do well,
and if we do that then I think we'll be good enough."
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
Feeds: Daniel Brettig
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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