Stunned at being grilled about his captaincy, Michael Clarke has no doubt a big score is just around the corner.
Clarke has averaged just 27.46 in his past 16 innings and managed only 2, 3, 47 and 5 in his four digs during Australia’s 2-0 series loss to Pakistan in the Middle East.
But with a bumper summer ahead, the skipper returned home to Sydney on Wednesday bullish about ending his lean trot in this month’s five one-dayers against South Africa before Australia host India in a four-Test series.
“I’m extremely confident,” Clarke said at Sydney Airport.
“Through my career I’ve experienced some times where I haven’t performed as well as I would have liked and I’ve had some times where I’ve had a lot of success.
“So consistency is really important for me, making sure I continue to train my backside off, make sure my preparation is spot on; don’t let anything get in the way of that – and I don’t think I did during the UAE tour.
“That’s just unfortunately sometimes the way it goes in this game. You can be doing the work, but just don’t get the results.
“I’ll stick to the same formula I’ve had over the past 10 years and I’m really confident if I do the work that success is just around the corner.”
Clarke admits his form with the bat in the Middle East was “unacceptable” but there has been no suggestion that his leadership is under any threat.
So the 33-year-old was taken aback when asked if he was concerned about his ability to continue captaining the Test side.
“Um, no, I would hope not,” Clarke said.
“You know, obviously we didn’t perform as well as we would have liked in this series, but we did pretty well to beat the No.1 team in the world in their own conditions – South Africa – (in March).
“We did pretty well to win the Ashes 5-0. I hope I’m doing the team justice as their leader, as captain.
“But I guess the selectors make that decision and the Cricket Australia board make that decision.
“If they think there’s someone better for the job, if they think my time is up as captain, then I’m sure they’ll let me know.
“But, from my perspective, I feel like I’ve still got a lot to offer the team.
“I think my performances over the past five years have been pretty consistent and I think my captaincy’s been pretty consistent over that period as well.
“So hopefully I’m not judged just on two Test matches.”
Despite his optimism, Clarke faces the prospect of entering the Test series against India without playing any more four-day cricket due to his ODI commitments.
NSW have three Sheffield Shield matches before the opening Test in Brisbane on December 4, but Clarke is unable to feature in any.
“I have absolutely no idea what I’m available for,” he said.
“But right now I’m pretty focused on these one-dayers.”
