Clarke ready to ‘train his backside off’ in quest to find form

BRISBANE - Stand-in Australian captain Michael Clarke has said that he is confident of bouncing back to his best ahead of the upcoming World Cup.

“Honestly I am definitely sick of talking about it (his form) and a lot of people are sick of reading about it,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Clarke, as saying.

“My performances haven’t been anywhere near good enough as they have needed to be.”

“For me the only way to find those answers is to train my backside off - I have the confidence that I can turn it around,” he added.

The 29-year-old also revealed that he had asked Cricket Australia (CA) if he could bat for his Western Suburbs club in their weekend grade clash ahead of Sunday’s fifth ODI against England in Brisbane.

“I said I was keen to go back to Sydney and have a hit there (in grade cricket), but they (CA) thought it was better preparation to be with the team which I agree with,” Clarke said.

“But any opportunity to play cricket (ahead of next month’s World Cup) now I will be grabbing with both hands. I am confident that I can turn this run around. But if a game does turn up for NSW or my grade club and it fits in with the team then I will certainly be playing,” he added.

Clarke averaged 34.7 in the winter Test series against Pakistan, 8.75 across two Tests in the following Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, and then 21.5 in the five-Test Ashes series against England this summer.

The 29-year-old has made only 70 runs at an average of 17.50 in four ODIs of the ongoing seven-match series against England. (ANI)