In 2013, curators at Test and first-class venues in Australia were told to produce pitches that were more conducive to batting and spin and containing less grass following a number of low-scoring Sheffield Shield fixtures that ended in two days. Clarke responded to Kohli’s tweet by thanking the Indian, who is gearing up to lead the team in the Test series against Sri Lanka starting August 12.
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“I think it’s the right time as he has been fighting inner demons and battling his game for the last 12-18 months”. “I believe in him and I believe in the Australian team”.
Smith broke Don Bradman’s record for most runs in a Test series between Australia and India last summer, when he stepped in as skipper following Michael Clarke’s hamstring surgery.
“Selectors did not speak to me at all about being dropped or standing down or retiring”, said Clarke.
Clarke and Ryan Harris have retired already.
“I think Australian cricket is in a very strong position”.
Durham captain Collingwood said he had noticed a change in the outlook of his old England colleague. “We’ve had some really good results, this obviously not being one of them”.
Smith will be happy to borrow from Clarke’s leadership style, if and when his time comes.
“I’ll give back 10 of my Test 100s if it wasn’t for my lovely wife”, he added.
England 5th Test squad: Adam Lyth (Yorkshire), Alastair Cook (Essex, captain), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wkt), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Mark Wood (Durham), Steven Finn (Middlesex), James Anderson (Lancashire), Liam Plunkett (Yorkshire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire).
But aside from the second Test win at Lord’s, where Smith, Chris Rogers and Mitchell Johnson were all outstanding, Australia have been well beaten in the other three matches with no genuine stand-out performers.
Coach Darren Lehmann is very much about player empowerment and it will be Smith making all the tough calls during matches. So I started swinging it and got away from the reason why I was picked in the first place.
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He pointed to the fact nothing was official until the board made it so and how important it was to send Clarke out on a high note at The Oval. “He’s just won the Ashes for the second time in three attempts, so I hope he’ll be in charge of us for a long time”, said Root of Cook, who became only the third English captain, after WG Grace and Mike Brearley, to twice win the Ashes on home soil. “We’ve got a bit of thinking to do and reviewing what went wrong”.
