By IANS
Sydney : Widely touted as a strong future claimant to Australian Test captaincy, Michael Clarke, was Wednesday named as captain for Australia’s Twenty20 international against New Zealand to be played Tuesday in Perth.
This heralds a new era in Australian cricket as Clarke overtakes Gilchrist and other senior players to lead the team, which is a hint form Cricket Australia (CA) that Clarke is being groomed to step into Ricky Ponting’s shoes when the latter retires.
While announcing this chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch said: “We have taken the opportunity to enhance the leadership skills of Michael Clarke, to assure the long history of strong leadership of Australian cricket is continued into the future.”
Ponting and Hayden will be rested for the Twenty20 match and Gilchrist will be the vice-captain.
“Over the moon” was the first reaction from Clarke over his selection as the Twenty20 skipper.
Clarke said: “I see it as a great opportunity, no doubt. But let’s definitely make it clear Ricky Ponting is still the Australian cricket captain.”
“I haven’t had any recent experience, so it’s going to be another challenge for me. I will definitely speak to Ricky and get his help and advice,” he added.
The captaincy comes as a big surprise for Clarke, who was dropped from the Test side just over a year ago for the opening Ashes match, but was later included in the team after Shane Watson was injured.
“I know exactly what it felt like to be dropped and I know exactly what it feels like to get the opportunity to captain my country and I know which position I prefer. I will never forget being dropped, I just hope it never happens again. I know I need to continue working hard on my game,” he said.