Test and one-day cricket captain Michael Clarke says the limited-overs tour of England and Ireland represents the start of a two-year campaign to make Australia the top-ranked nation in all three forms of the game.

Australia already heads the one-day ratings, but is third in the Test standings and fifth in the T20 format.

“We’ve been the number one one-day team in the world for a while now but we need to continue to raise the bar,” said Clarke before the ODI squad flew out from Sydney Airport on Thursday.

“I think our cricket of late in the shorter form hasn’t been as consistent as we would like.

“I think once we get on the plane it’s probably the start of a two-year journey for this Australian team, whether it be the one-day team, the Test team or the Twenty20 team, to have a lot of success and get back to being the No.1 in all forms of the game.”

Australia will play two English county teams and a limited overs international against Ireland before facing fourth-ranked England in five one-day internationals.

Clarke said he’d been surprised by England batsman Kevin Pietersen’s recent retirement from ODIs.

“I’m thrilled I don’t have to play against him in one-day cricket because he’s such a good player and he’s had a lot of success and he’s a natural in it,” Clarke said.

“But England have a lot of good players in their team.”

Clarke nominated David Hussey to fill the batting role of innings closer and pacer of run chases in the absence of his brother Michael, who withdrew from the tour for family reasons following the premature birth of his fourth child.

Clarke was also confident the pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the players would be resolved within the next week or two and said the last thing he wanted to do would be to go on strike.