JOIN USMichael Clarke’s cricketing life will come to a full circle when he leads Australia on to the field in the first Test at Chepauk on Friday. It was in India that Clarke made his Test debut as a precocious youngster in 2004 in Bangalore.
Now, no longer the ‘‘Blond-haired bombshell from New South Wales’’ as Mark Nicholas would have bellowed, Clarke has matured into a fine batsman and a gritty leader of men. He talked about his transformation.
“I do not think I have changed as I would say that I have grown little bit older and a bit wiser. I have got few more grey hairs. I am still loving my cricket and I am really enjoying the young team that we have at the moment. They have not played in longer version matches in India but they have enjoyed being in India. I am very lucky I have the chance to come here as captain. I am as excited as I was in 2004 when I made my debut,” Clarke said.
Teams for first Test
India (from): MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda.
Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Ed Cowan, Philip Hughes, Shane Watson, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade, Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus. Match referee: Chris Broad.