Australia captain Michael Clarke will announce on Wednesday morning if he’s fit to play in the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka after showing good signs earlier this week that he has recovered from a hamstring injury.
Test cricket’s leading run scorer in 2012 did a series of sprinting drills at training at the MCG on Tuesday but said he would wait until the morning of the match to see how he felt.
Former Test No.3 Usman Khawaja is on standby for Clarke and vice-captain Shane Watson will take over as skipper if Clarke is rested.
“I need to see how I pull up from that before we make a decision on whether I am 100 per cent fit to play,” Clarke said on Tuesday.
“I haven’t run at 100 per cent yet, but I’ve certainly built up over the last three days to get as close to that as I can.
“Very rarely when you’re running between the wickets are you going 100 per cent anyway, but yesterday and today I tried to run like I would in the game and so far, so good.
“But I need to see how I pull up in the morning.
“I don’t have any pain walking around. Batting I haven’t felt it at all.”
Despite his side’s 137-run loss in last week’s first Test in Hobart, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene is in a confident mood.
Jayawardene says the team’s imposing batting line-up is the key to their hopes of victory.
We’ve got the experience. We’ve got the talent,” he said.
“We just need to go out and produce the goods.”
Sri Lanka haven’t won a Test on Australian soil, but have a good opportunity with batting greats Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in their side.
Sangakkara is 40 runs shy of joining his skipper in the prestigious 10,000 Test runs club.
“We’ve always had a great support in Melbourne and Sydney,” Jayawardene said.
“We’ve always cherished that and it gives us an extra bit of momentum towards the game.”
Jayawardene said winning a Test in this current three-match series would mean a lot.
“It won’t be for me personally but for the entire team and for the entire country,” he said.
Jayawardene said pace bowler Nuwan Kulasekara would need to prove his fitness after being troubled by a knock to the ribs while batting in Hobart.