Clarke's role given new spin

Michael Clarke can expect more responsibility in England, but John Buchanan believes the extra work will come from his bowling instead of his batting. With the departure of Darren Lehmann, Clarke is expected to increase his target practice as Australia search for useful overs in Tests and ODIs.

Clarke's first off-season task is to recapture the free-swinging play that won him the Allan Border Medal, but Buchanan wants to work on his left-arm spin at a training camp in Brisbane later this month. "He has been picked as a No. 6 batsman and that remains the key element of his game, but the bowling will be good for his overall game," he told the Courier-Mail newspaper.

Buchanan said that Clarke, whose eight Test wickets so far at just 7.63 runs apiece includes his dramatic 6 for 9 at Mumbai last year, needed to develop so he could perform under the regular pressure of match conditions. "It's more important in the one-day game now that Lehmann is not playing," said Buchanan, "but he may be able to play more of a role for us in Test matches."

While his Test bowling has been spectacularly brief, Clarke had more opportunities in the early stages of his limited-overs career, and has captured 18 wickets in 49 games. His best performance was 5 for 35 against Sri Lanka at Dambulla in 2003-04, but he bowled only twice during the summer's ODI series.