Clarke given February 21 World Cup deadline

Michael Clarke admits he has his "work cut out" to make the deadline set by the national selectors to prove he his fitness after hamstring surgery, and accepts that he will be a spectator for Australia's World Cup campaign if he does not. Clarke has until Australia's second World Cup match against Bangladesh on February 21 to demonstrate his readiness.

Named to lead Australia's 15-man squad, Clarke will be replaced in the group if he has not fully recovered by that time. George Bailey has been retained as Clarke's deputy and the man who will captain the side should Clarke be ruled out, despite the rise of Steven Smith to the Test vice-captaincy.

"There is a time limit and it doesn't only apply to Michael," the national selector Rod Marsh said. "If anyone else gets injured then we've got to have them ready to play in the second game. And there is a chance other people could go down because we've got matches obviously as you know in this tri-series and we're just hopeful we can manage everyone and that everyone is fit and raring to go by the second game. That's where we've left it with everyone, including Michael.

"From a cricket point of view obviously we would want Michael to do some bowling, we want him obviously to be able to run between wickets and we want him to be able to field. And he knows what he's got to do. He's played enough cricket to know when he's right to play.

"We want him there, don't make any mistakes about that. Because when we sat down to pick the team we looked at the best batsman in the country and Michael is certainly one of them. No doubt about that. We want him to play, he wants to play all he's got to do is get fit."

Clarke and Marsh sat alongside each other for the Cup squad announcement on a grey morning at Sydney's Circular Quay, a matter of weeks after the captain and the selectors were at odds with each other about his fitness to start the India Test series. Marsh again expressed a preference for Clarke to play some sort of cricket before he is selected against Bangladesh, even offering up the possibility that he might be asked to bat though not run in a warm-up against the UAE in Melbourne.

"We want to be settled - what we don't want is talk about people's fitness," Marsh said. "We want to walk into that tournament and we reckon there's an extra week after the 14th, that Bangladesh game is on the 21st and by the 21st of February we want to be completely and utterly settled.

While you sleep, I train. While you eat, I train. While you party, I train. February 21 is my goal! https://t.co/aQwZga2be7

— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) January 11, 2015

"It would be really nice if Michael could go and play some cricket before the 21st, and there's a possibility that might happen because we've got a game against the UAE in Melbourne on the 7th. It's a practice match and Michael might be able to walk out there and have a hit, and just hit boundaries and not worry about running between wickets. And I'm sure he'd like to walk out there on the MCG and smack a few fours, and maybe sixes."

For his part, Clarke said he was simply doing his best to return to cricket at 100% fitness, whenever that may be. "It's up to the selectors, they make their decision and that's why I say right now my focus is getting fully fit to be able to play whatever format of the game, whether it's Test cricket or ODI cricket," Clarke said. "I'm sure there will be [fitness] tests along the way, my goal is to pass every single one of those and when that happens I'll be fit to walk out.

"The Australian medical staff will make the decision that I'm okay to walk out on that park and perform at my best. So it's really irrelevant what I think to be honest. That's what they've gone with, the selectors, that's the system. I have to get fit and healthy and get myself back on the park to help Australia have success.

"The experts probably feel I'm going to need that time to give myself the chance to be 100 per cent fit, to walk out into a one-day international for Australia. The most important thing for me is to walk out on to the field and be able to perform my role. I've always played a 100 miles an hour, running between the wickets has always been a strength of mine, speed in the field has always been a strength of mine, I want to be able to play the way I've always played my cricket."

There were no major surprises in Australia's squad, with Pat Cummins included and Xavier Doherty preferred to Nathan Lyon as the specialist spinner. There was no fairtyale call-up for Ryan Harris, who has not played a one-day international for nearly three years.

Marsh said the allrounder Mitchell Marsh, who suffered a hamstring injury during the Brisbane Test against India, was expected to be fit for the start of the World Cup and Australia were hopeful he would be ready to play at some stage during the tri-series against India and England. He also said that Bailey deserved his chance to lead in the Cup should Clarke not be fit.

"We took the view that George has done a wonderful job in Michael's absence," Marsh said. "When Michael hasn't played one-day cricket, George has been the captain. George has done a fantastic job with the team and you know what, after Steven playing three Test matches leading Australia in Test cricket, I think he's pretty tired and I think he'll relish the fact he can just go out there and play cricket.

"That's the way we looked at it and George is an experienced campaigner in one day cricket captaincy and we thought that's probably the way to go. We don't want to make it too hard on Steven just at this point in time, because he's in such a rich vein of form."

In recognition of the exertions of the fast bowlers during the India series, Kane Richardson and Gurinder Sandhu will join the triangular series squad in Sydney on Tuesday. Mitchell Johnson will remain in Perth for the time being while it is also a strong possibility that Josh Hazlewood will miss Friday's first match in Sydney.