Michael Clarke
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:31 amProfile
Michael Clarke : Right handed Batsman
Born:April 2, 1981.New South Wales .
Bowling: SLA orthodox
Fielding : (Inner circle) Slips, point
ODI Debut: Australia v England at Adelaide, Jan 19, 2003
Test debut: India v Australia at Bangalore, Oct 6-10, 2004
T20 debut: New Zealand v Australia at Auckland, Feb 17, 2005
Test Debut:
In the test arena , he made a impressive debut knocking 150+ against India at Bangalore. Although the Bangalore wicket favors the batsmen, the bowling attack had established spinners like Kumble and Harbhajan .
Fitness:
Fitness is something which Michael takes very seriously. Apart from the nets and the regular fitness drills he has concentrated in gym workouts. He has faced back injuries in recent past. Hamstring is another injury which has suffered from but that’s the most common injury for sportsman in field games. He needs to manage his fitness properly . So far he has given importance to fitness by not playing even important matches such as Commonwealth bank semi and finals.
Batting:
Approach to batting:
He is one of those players who will make an attempt to settle on the wicket by judging the bounce of the wicket. Later on once he has put on a score he opens up his wide stroke range. When needed to accelerate he has shown the ability of being able to clear the front foot from line of the ball and hit it down the ground both in tests and ODI’s. It is partly to his approach of accumulating runs by means of ground strokes before playing attacking strokes lead to the downfall in T20’s.
Stroke range:
Michael Clarke has a wide range of strokes as he can bat well on the front as well as back foot very nicely. His test average of 49 is a testament to his batting quality. He rarely plays any unorthodox cricketing strokes . His strokes are mostly played all along the ground. He does tries to avoid the hook stroke put plays the pull excellently. Very few strokes over the infield in test matches, except for the pull and hook. At times he even pulls on the front foot, once he has judged the bounce off the wicket.
Front foot technique:
His front foot extends well forward and very decisively. The angle of front foot is in direction in which he attempts to hit the ball. The head is also stable enough. His shoulders are properly in the line of the stumps at the other end. So are the eyes. Overall his stance is very impressive and stable and such good basics will help him more often than not. Even when he gets down the wicket to the spinners he makes a decisive footwork and gets close to the ball.
The follow through of the stroke is pretty good and technically sound with the elbow playing a lead role.
The only thing that can improve is that leaning more on the front foot while playing the drives to get the balance perfect. If he bends the knee much more like some players like Dravid does while playing the front foot strokes, he will be very good at front foot.
Backfoot technique:
The stance being good there is a good scope for Clarke to rock back well on the back foot. Another impressive technique is that he covers the stumps with his back foot while playing square off the wicket. He Gets top of the ball very nicely and has a nice footwork towards off side to cover the stumps to punch it through point either off pacers or spinners. He plays it on the ground between deep midwicket and backward square leg. The point of contact of bat with ball is almost below the eye level. Such a technique brings a lot of balance to the strokes. On rare occasions has not covered the stumps and got inside edges. The head position is very good at the point of contact with the ball.
Big innings:
(1)He scored a Chanceless 166 Vs Pak (Asif/ Amir/ Gul/ Kaneria) at Hobart. 352 run partnership. Ponting went on to score a double. Aussies won the match comprehensively.
(2)329 versus India in 2012 at Sydney was followed by 210 at Adelaide . The 329 runs against Indian bowling attack does shows about his stamina, his shot selection, temperament and patience as well even though the bowling attack cannot be put into the top 4 attacks.
Knocks under pressure :
(1)He played a captains knock of 151 versus South Africa at Capetown, against the attack of Philander, Steyn and morkel, in a match which he scored more than 50% of the team total (284). Considering that the other team totals were 96 by saffers in first innings and 47 by Australia in second says a lot about his form.
(2)After breaking up with Lara Bingle in year 2010, he came back strongly in the immediate test in following week against NewZealand with a determined knock of 154.
(3)His 136 Versus England at Lords in Ashes 2009, while playing for a draw as England set up 500+ was superb although Aussies lost the match.
Another impressive aspect of his batting is that he is a quick runner and puts pressure on theinner and outer ring fielders. When needed he has shown that he dives full length to make the ground and convert a risky single to a successful run. However, i wonder whether he will continue to dive often given his back and hamstring injuries off late. Bad dives or dives during such fitness issues are a huge concern and needs a thinking IMO.
Bowling:
He is a typical Slow left arm orthodox bowler. A part timer who has shown he can pick important wickets on some wickets and roll over the arm for a short spell in some other matches. Mumbai 6 wickets in 9 runs in only one spell at Wankhede , claiming Gambhir, Dravid and karthik . Inspite of that extraordinary spell India won the test. On cracking turners he can be used for a short spell and see if he can break partnership.
Fielding:
Fields in the slip position In the ODI’s he fields in the inner circle, because of his ability to hit the stumps or create run outs and take quick reflex catches. Later on he has made the point position his own when field restrictions relaxes in ODI. In tests he is one of the best slip fielder and takes very high proportion of catches successfully. Ponting, Symmonds, Gibbs, A B D and Collingwood are the 5 best fielders he has seen during his international career.
Captaincy:
I am of the opinion that a captain is as good as a team as there is not much difference between the cricketing logic experienced by the players until they reach international cricket and further as they keep playing international matches. There will be few different approaches but the basic captaincy decisions will be consistent at this level.
Ricky Ponting was rested due to broken finger which required surgery. Clarke played his first test as captain in 5th test at SCG of the Ashes 2011 series. Engand won the test match by an innings and 80 runs and the ashes 2010 – 2011 by a margin of 3-1. Clarke scored 4 and 41 in the test match.
From the pool of pace bowlers (Hiflenhaus , Mitchell and Siddle) he opted to attack the openers with Hilfenhaus and Mitchell. Mitchell finally got to bowl with the new ball which he preferred rather than the first change bowler. That did not work out though as Mitchell leaked runs and went wicket less in his first spell. Even for the series against SriLanka he used Mitchell as first change bowler going back to Pontings tactics. Clarke was quick on his feet to replace Mitchell with Siddle. Tthe batting order was also changed in his first test as captain. Steven Smith who had batted ahead of Haddin under Ponting’s captaincy , was pushed after Haddin in Clarke’s captaincy and rightly so.
In a ODI against Bangladesh at Mirpur, he promoted Steven Simth over Michael Hussey and Callum Fergusson to maintain the run rate. However, Smith got out cheaply whereas Hussey scored a ton. All though the move to promote Smith did not work out the thinking of promoting Smith is fairly justified.
His field placements are good. Perhaps being a attacking fielder he will get the field placements correct more often than not. At times, he has gone for 7 – 2 field settings but that is due to lack of established spin bowlers in the squad. He stresses a lot of importance on fielding.
He will need to build a core group of players keeping in mind that the next world Cup is being played in Australia and NewZealand. The recent events suggest that Daniel Christian and Peter Forrest are being backed up with the World Cup in perspective. Clarke will have a big say in the selection process. The management of developing fast bowlers like Pattinson, Cummins, Copeland who are injured very early in their careers will be a aspect he has to give a lot of thought while selecting squads for Tests and ODI squads. Indias whitewash of 4-0 in Test series 2012 is his standout win as captain as well as a high point in his test career.
Hope he continues to score prolifically in the tests and ODi as he has done so far. The odd bad form should not be a worry anymore as he has shown enough class in his batting and fielding. The job is not over though because his role as captaincy has just started. He will have to lead by example as he did against SriLanka, South Africa and India. Also he will need to develop a potential captain and a good core team which will give Team Australia a sustainable advantage.
Michael Clarke : Right handed Batsman
Born:April 2, 1981.New South Wales .
Bowling: SLA orthodox
Fielding : (Inner circle) Slips, point
ODI Debut: Australia v England at Adelaide, Jan 19, 2003
Test debut: India v Australia at Bangalore, Oct 6-10, 2004
T20 debut: New Zealand v Australia at Auckland, Feb 17, 2005
Test Debut:
In the test arena , he made a impressive debut knocking 150+ against India at Bangalore. Although the Bangalore wicket favors the batsmen, the bowling attack had established spinners like Kumble and Harbhajan .
Fitness:
Fitness is something which Michael takes very seriously. Apart from the nets and the regular fitness drills he has concentrated in gym workouts. He has faced back injuries in recent past. Hamstring is another injury which has suffered from but that’s the most common injury for sportsman in field games. He needs to manage his fitness properly . So far he has given importance to fitness by not playing even important matches such as Commonwealth bank semi and finals.
Batting:
Approach to batting:
He is one of those players who will make an attempt to settle on the wicket by judging the bounce of the wicket. Later on once he has put on a score he opens up his wide stroke range. When needed to accelerate he has shown the ability of being able to clear the front foot from line of the ball and hit it down the ground both in tests and ODI’s. It is partly to his approach of accumulating runs by means of ground strokes before playing attacking strokes lead to the downfall in T20’s.
Stroke range:
Michael Clarke has a wide range of strokes as he can bat well on the front as well as back foot very nicely. His test average of 49 is a testament to his batting quality. He rarely plays any unorthodox cricketing strokes . His strokes are mostly played all along the ground. He does tries to avoid the hook stroke put plays the pull excellently. Very few strokes over the infield in test matches, except for the pull and hook. At times he even pulls on the front foot, once he has judged the bounce off the wicket.
Front foot technique:
His front foot extends well forward and very decisively. The angle of front foot is in direction in which he attempts to hit the ball. The head is also stable enough. His shoulders are properly in the line of the stumps at the other end. So are the eyes. Overall his stance is very impressive and stable and such good basics will help him more often than not. Even when he gets down the wicket to the spinners he makes a decisive footwork and gets close to the ball.
The follow through of the stroke is pretty good and technically sound with the elbow playing a lead role.
The only thing that can improve is that leaning more on the front foot while playing the drives to get the balance perfect. If he bends the knee much more like some players like Dravid does while playing the front foot strokes, he will be very good at front foot.
Backfoot technique:
The stance being good there is a good scope for Clarke to rock back well on the back foot. Another impressive technique is that he covers the stumps with his back foot while playing square off the wicket. He Gets top of the ball very nicely and has a nice footwork towards off side to cover the stumps to punch it through point either off pacers or spinners. He plays it on the ground between deep midwicket and backward square leg. The point of contact of bat with ball is almost below the eye level. Such a technique brings a lot of balance to the strokes. On rare occasions has not covered the stumps and got inside edges. The head position is very good at the point of contact with the ball.
Big innings:
(1)He scored a Chanceless 166 Vs Pak (Asif/ Amir/ Gul/ Kaneria) at Hobart. 352 run partnership. Ponting went on to score a double. Aussies won the match comprehensively.
(2)329 versus India in 2012 at Sydney was followed by 210 at Adelaide . The 329 runs against Indian bowling attack does shows about his stamina, his shot selection, temperament and patience as well even though the bowling attack cannot be put into the top 4 attacks.
Knocks under pressure :
(1)He played a captains knock of 151 versus South Africa at Capetown, against the attack of Philander, Steyn and morkel, in a match which he scored more than 50% of the team total (284). Considering that the other team totals were 96 by saffers in first innings and 47 by Australia in second says a lot about his form.
(2)After breaking up with Lara Bingle in year 2010, he came back strongly in the immediate test in following week against NewZealand with a determined knock of 154.
(3)His 136 Versus England at Lords in Ashes 2009, while playing for a draw as England set up 500+ was superb although Aussies lost the match.
Another impressive aspect of his batting is that he is a quick runner and puts pressure on theinner and outer ring fielders. When needed he has shown that he dives full length to make the ground and convert a risky single to a successful run. However, i wonder whether he will continue to dive often given his back and hamstring injuries off late. Bad dives or dives during such fitness issues are a huge concern and needs a thinking IMO.
Bowling:
He is a typical Slow left arm orthodox bowler. A part timer who has shown he can pick important wickets on some wickets and roll over the arm for a short spell in some other matches. Mumbai 6 wickets in 9 runs in only one spell at Wankhede , claiming Gambhir, Dravid and karthik . Inspite of that extraordinary spell India won the test. On cracking turners he can be used for a short spell and see if he can break partnership.
Fielding:
Fields in the slip position In the ODI’s he fields in the inner circle, because of his ability to hit the stumps or create run outs and take quick reflex catches. Later on he has made the point position his own when field restrictions relaxes in ODI. In tests he is one of the best slip fielder and takes very high proportion of catches successfully. Ponting, Symmonds, Gibbs, A B D and Collingwood are the 5 best fielders he has seen during his international career.
Captaincy:
I am of the opinion that a captain is as good as a team as there is not much difference between the cricketing logic experienced by the players until they reach international cricket and further as they keep playing international matches. There will be few different approaches but the basic captaincy decisions will be consistent at this level.
Ricky Ponting was rested due to broken finger which required surgery. Clarke played his first test as captain in 5th test at SCG of the Ashes 2011 series. Engand won the test match by an innings and 80 runs and the ashes 2010 – 2011 by a margin of 3-1. Clarke scored 4 and 41 in the test match.
From the pool of pace bowlers (Hiflenhaus , Mitchell and Siddle) he opted to attack the openers with Hilfenhaus and Mitchell. Mitchell finally got to bowl with the new ball which he preferred rather than the first change bowler. That did not work out though as Mitchell leaked runs and went wicket less in his first spell. Even for the series against SriLanka he used Mitchell as first change bowler going back to Pontings tactics. Clarke was quick on his feet to replace Mitchell with Siddle. Tthe batting order was also changed in his first test as captain. Steven Smith who had batted ahead of Haddin under Ponting’s captaincy , was pushed after Haddin in Clarke’s captaincy and rightly so.
In a ODI against Bangladesh at Mirpur, he promoted Steven Simth over Michael Hussey and Callum Fergusson to maintain the run rate. However, Smith got out cheaply whereas Hussey scored a ton. All though the move to promote Smith did not work out the thinking of promoting Smith is fairly justified.
His field placements are good. Perhaps being a attacking fielder he will get the field placements correct more often than not. At times, he has gone for 7 – 2 field settings but that is due to lack of established spin bowlers in the squad. He stresses a lot of importance on fielding.
He will need to build a core group of players keeping in mind that the next world Cup is being played in Australia and NewZealand. The recent events suggest that Daniel Christian and Peter Forrest are being backed up with the World Cup in perspective. Clarke will have a big say in the selection process. The management of developing fast bowlers like Pattinson, Cummins, Copeland who are injured very early in their careers will be a aspect he has to give a lot of thought while selecting squads for Tests and ODI squads. Indias whitewash of 4-0 in Test series 2012 is his standout win as captain as well as a high point in his test career.
Hope he continues to score prolifically in the tests and ODi as he has done so far. The odd bad form should not be a worry anymore as he has shown enough class in his batting and fielding. The job is not over though because his role as captaincy has just started. He will have to lead by example as he did against SriLanka, South Africa and India. Also he will need to develop a potential captain and a good core team which will give Team Australia a sustainable advantage.
