Clarke's carving his own way - Rixon

Michael Clarke's leadership in Sri Lanka has impressed Australia's fielding coach Steve Rixon. Clarke, Rixon said, had developed the right rapport with the team.

"I've seen Pup [Clarke] from a young cricketer, when he was first with New South Wales, so I know his personality and he's in a position now where he's carving his own way," Rixon told AAP. "I like his enthusiasm, I like the way he's relaxed around the players. He knows the line between being captain and being one of the boys and that's come from a lot of years of experience, seeing the likes of Punter [Ricky Ponting] and Steve Waugh and how they ran the show."

Clarke has won five of six one-day games as captain - three against Bangladesh and two in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka - since taking over from Ponting after the 2011 World Cup. Rixon said the big challenge would come when Australia play their first Test under Clarke, against Sri Lanka in Galle, later this month.

"I reckon he'll do a very good job, because he'll come in with fresh ideas and I think that's healthy. There are a lot of things that don't need fixing, but at the same time Pup's got to make his own impression on it. He's got to make a statement: 'this is the way I would like to see things done, I've learnt from very good captains before, and this is my little slant on it'."

Rixon said last summer's unsuccessful Ashes campaign was the wake-up call Australian cricket needed and that things were likely to improve, especially with the hard work in recent times and the structure reforms in the offing. "We were always going to come back to earth and the Ashes were probably the real kick in the belly.

"I see that [reclaiming the top billing] as an exciting challenge. To get these guys up and believing in their own abilities. Get them to trust their preparation, which has been spot-on, being honest. What I'm seeing here is there's no shortage of hard workers, there's no shortage of planning and now we're getting a bit more honesty coming out in everyone's view on things. If you bottle it up, it goes nowhere. But if you go and talk about things, it's going to be healthy."