Michael Clarke, the Australian vice-captain, completed a net session at the Gabba today, telling team mates he felt good in preparation for the first Ashes test against England on Thursday.
Clarke has been battling an on-going back injury which kept him out of playing a first class game for New South Wales last week, and also forced him to miss the Australia's training session yesterday.
On Monday he had said on his Twitter page that he felt confident he would be fit in time for the start of the keenly anticipated series, but captain Ricky Ponting had said he needed to practice on Tuesday if he was to be considered for the opening game.
Uncapped batsman Usman Khawaja was brought into the squad on Monday as cover for Clarke, but it looks unlikely he will be needed.
Clarke took part in fielding drills as well as his net session, and reports say that he finished training with a grin on his face.
After the session, fast bowler Mitchell Johnson said, "He batted for about 45 minutes today. He had a bit of a throw-down in the outside nets",
"He said that he felt pretty good with the throw-downs and with the batting that he did, so that's a good sign for him and for Australia".
Clarke has made 4549 runs at an average 48.91 in 64 tests, and is a key component heading into Thursday's first test with Australia's middle order batting support looking slim.
No comments:
Post a Comment