Australia not sacrificing T20 or one-day cricket for Tests: Clarke

Sydney, (ANI): Skipper Michael Clarke has ruled out reports that Australia is sacrificing the fortunes of the one-day team for the benefit of Test development, after the team suffered its worst defeat in a bilateral one-day series at the hands of England.

Players such as George Bailey, Peter Forrest, James Pattinson and Matthew Wade were brought to England not simply to win a stand-alone one-day series with debatable prestige, but to gain valuable experience in the conditions they may face at Test level during the Ashes.

“We have been giving guys an opportunity through one-day cricket to have a look at them for Test as well, but I don’t think we have prioritised Test cricket to a level to say we will sacrifice Twenty20 or one-day,” he said.

“Australians want to be the best at what they do and my goal is to stay at No. 1 in one-day format. I think we have enough good players in the country, we are going to have to work our backsides off, but I think we have enough talent to be number one in all three forms of the game,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted him, as saying.

Clarke admitted Australia’s one-day form had been lagging since the summer, saying a close look at the team was needed to determine what was awry ahead of next month’s one-day and Twenty20 series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

He said: “It’s a reminder, not a wake-up call,” he said. “We knew through the Australian summer we weren’t playing anywhere near as good as we needed to be against Sri Lanka and India.

“We went to the West Indies and just got over the line there, so it’s not like this is the first series where we haven’t played as well as we’d like.“Our one-day cricket hasn’t been as consistent as it needs to be if we want to stay at the top of the table ... We’ve got a lot of work to do as a one-day team.”