Michael Clarke became Australia’s 43rd Test captain when Ricky Ponting was injured for the final Ashes Test in Sydney, he was elevated to the job permanently when Ponting stood down after the 2011 World Cup.
He is also a selector, in accordance with a recommendation in the Argus review.
Under his leadership Australia has risen to No. 3 in the Test rankings after slipping back to No. 5 following the 2010/11 3-1 Ashes loss.
In his first season as captain at home, he led Australia to a 4-0 drubbing of India. He starred with the bat and won over Australian fans with aggressive leadership and and astute use of bowlers.
He produced one of the finest innings ever produced by an Australian captain during the third Test, in front of a packed house at his beloved SCG, scoring 329 n.o. from 468 balls. In the second innings he took the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar to seal victory.
In April 2012 he led Australia to a 2-0 victory over West Indies in the Caribbean. A gutsy declaration in the the first innings of the first Test, while still behind in runs, engineered an unlikely victory and set the tone for the rest of the series.
Clarke celebrated his first series win as Test captain in Sri Lanka in August 2011. As a batsman he demonstrated his class against spin bowling with 60 on a crumbling pitch in the second innings at Galle and a fine 112 in Colombo.
It was a drought-breaking innings, coming 19 months after his previous Test ton in New Zealand.
His biggest challenge came in November 2011 in Cape Town where he produced his 16th Test hundred, surviving a hostile working over from Dale Steyn to score a superb 151, but this was little consolation when Australia was rolled for 47 in its second innings. The team found some redemption in Johannesburg with a thrilling win to level the series.
Clarke has enjoyed great success in ODI cricket, he recently led Australia to victory in the Commonwealth Bank Series at home and scoring 117 against Sri Lanka in the second final.
Michael Clarke greeted the Test world with a breathtaking 151 on debut in Bangalore in 2004, was dropped after the 2005 Ashes and fought back to become his country’s most effective batsman.
He made his first class debut in 1999 for NSW.
