DHAKA – Australia’s new captain Michael Clarke says he will count on his predecessor Ricky Ponting’s advice in a one-day series against Bangladesh starting in Dhaka on Saturday. “Ricky’s advice has always been very helpful to me whether that was when I was his vice-captain or now as the captain,” Clarke told reporters on Friday.
“I have certainly said openly to Ricky that everybody in the team will continue to need his knowledge of the game and me definitely. His knowledge is crucial to the team going forward.” Clarke, who has previously led Australia as a stand-in captain, last month replaced Ponting as skipper following the team’s World Cup quarter-final defeat against India in Ahmedabad. Ponting, with 13,288 runs in 359 one-day internationals, has retained his place as batsman in the squad for three matches against Bangladesh.
When asked whether he would be under pressure, Clarke said: “Obviously, there is an added pressure as a captain but I think we have a very good team with a lot of talent. I think we can be successful going forward. “We want to start the tour well by getting a win tomorrow and have some success on this tour. That is our main focus right now.”
Clarke said he expected his team to be more consistent in future. “The one thing I am trying to bring to this team is to be more consistent. I think over the World Cup we played some really good cricket in patches and then played some poor cricket,” he said.
Clarke said his team needed to be “at their best” against Bangladesh, who had been playing good cricket in home conditions. “Bangladesh have played some really good cricket over the last few years, especially at the World Cup. They are probably getting more consistent and have a lot of talent. Playing in home conditions makes them tougher,” he said.
“I would like it (series result) to be 3-0 from the Australian point of view, but that might not be the case. I want to see Australia play some really good, positive cricket and hopefully we can win every game we play.” Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, whose team failed to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals, said they had another chance to prove themselves.
“We will have to do better than what we did at the World Cup. We have been fortunate to get another chance to prove ourselves. What we will be looking for is to play some good cricket,” said Shakib. “We might not have the same pressure we had at the World Cup and will be trying to put up our best performance against them.”
The remaining two one-dayers will be played in Dhaka on April 11 and 13.
Ponting’s advice vital, says Clarke
