Wednesday looms as key day for skipper

The plan to have Michael Clarke prove his fitness for the summer’s opening Test in a tour match later this week might be scuttled if the Australia captain is not up and running by Wednesday.

Clarke was today named in Australia’s 12-man squad for the first Commonwealth Bank Test match against India that begins at the Gabba on December 4 but his selection was subject to him recovering from a recurrence of a back-related hamstring injury.

Related: View Australia's Test squad here

In announcing the squad this morning, chairman of selectors Rod Marsh confirmed Clarke would be added to a Cricket Australia XI to play a two-day tour match against India at Adelaide Oval beginning on Friday to show that he can withstand the rigours of competitive cricket.

But Marsh added that the skipper might not make it that far unless he can resume running by the middle of this week and thereby receive the all-clear from the team’s medical staff to resume playing by week’s end.

“What they (medical team) have said is that he needs to start running and if he doesn’t start running by, I think, Wednesday, then we can safely assume he won’t be playing in the Test match,” Marsh said in Adelaide this morning.

“My gut feeling all along was that he would be fit for the Test match, but now he’s got to play the two-day game here for him to prove his fitness and I think that’s really important.

“Because with his recent history we can’t have him breaking down in the first innings of a Test match.

“I think we all realise that.”

Marsh said it would be safe to assume that medicos would take a conservative approach to Clarke’s return given he has succumbed to the injury several times in recent months and in mind of Australia’s huge international schedule this summer culminating in the ICC World Cup in February and March.

And while Marsh confirmed the 33-year-old would not be rested from international commitments if it was felt he was fit enough to play, the selectors would not be prepared to send him into the heat of a Test match battle if he was not deemed fully recovered.

“Given what’s coming up I think the medicos may go down that (cautious) route,” Marsh said.

“That’s their (medical staff) area so I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

“We would never, ever rest the Australian captain from the first Test match of a series.

“But if he’s not fit then obviously he can’t play.”

While the National Selection Panel – Marsh, Trevor Hohns, Mark Waugh and coach Darren Lehmann – named Clarke pending his fitness assessment they did not identify which alternative middle-order batsman would be on standby should the skipper be ruled out.

When asked if the panel had a player in mind or if that decision would be made once the next round of Bupa Sheffield Shield matches – due to begin tomorrow – was completed, Marsh was giving nothing away.

“We’re not naming anyone just yet,” he said.

“Whether or not we have one (a name in mind), that’s for us to know and you to find out and I’m not going telling you.”

He was even more reluctant to comment on last weekend’s move to name Clarke in Western Suburbs’ XI for their Sydney grade match against Parramatta which has led to Cricket New South Wales investigating the circumstances surrounding that decision.

Any push to have Clarke play on the second day of that match next Saturday has now been made redundant by his selection for the CA XI in the two-day match in Adelaide starting Friday.

“That’s got nothing to do with us,” Marsh said of the selectors’ view of the story that unfolded over last weekend.

“I think it was an effort by his (grade) captain trying to give him a hit, and I know no more than that.”