Clarke convinced Johnson will make a comeback

WARWICKSHIRE - Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke is convinced that left arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson will make a telling comeback during the ongoing Ashes series.

Clarke, who was speaking ahead of the third Ashes Test to be played here from Thursday, said Australians play their best when the chips are down.

According to The Independent, there appears to be no room for doubt in the Australian collective mind that they will do anything other than come back.

There seems to be no room for scepticism.

“It’s the Australian way, I guess. We play this game for one reason: to win. We love the game we play, we’ll be out there on Thursday backing ourselves 100 per cent to win this game.

We play our best cricket when the chips are down, we are 1-0 down and we’ll take the positives out of that. We know where we let ourselves down over the past two Tests and we know the areas we want to improve. I’m certain if we play our best cricket we will win this Test,” Clarke said.

Clarke has been in top form, scoring 83 at Cardiff and a pristine 136 at Lord’s.

There were times on the fourth evening when it seriously looked as if Clarke meant Australia to chase the enormous target of 522 that they had been set.

All of England knew that the tourists had to lose an early wicket on the final morning if the impossible was not to become reality.

Meanwhile, Ponting needs only 25 runs to become Australia’s heaviest run scorer in Test matches.

His understudy said: “He’s not only an amazing player but an amazing leader, somebody we all look up to. If anyone deserves to overtake Allan Border it’s Ricky Ponting, he’s been an amazing player for such a long time in all forms of the game, in all conditions around the world, to me that’s a sign of great players. I see Ricky as one of the greatest players I’ve played with, and one of the greatest players to play the game.” (ANI)