Captain Clarke shows promising signs

Michael Clarke has been on work experience as Australia’s captain during the one-day series win over Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. Sam Lienert of AAP has been impressed with the leader during Ricky Ponting’s rest.

Clarke has hardly put a foot wrong with his captaincy. The acting skipper has kept team spirits high despite the pressure they faced after being skittled by Pakistan's spinners in the series-opener to continue what had been a disappointing recent one-day record. He has had to manage pacemen being rotated in and out of the side on spin-friendly pitches and draw the best from a squad with numerous stars on the comeback trail and several other players new to international cricket.

In the Sun-Herald Andrew Stevenson writes that after the past two weeks Clarke is the leader in waiting.