Symonds ready to ignore the pressure

Andrew Symonds has returned to full fitness after off-season wrist surgery and hopes to use the two upcoming one-day tournaments to press his claims for an Ashes Test spot. Australia's selectors trialled Symonds for most of last season as they searched for an all-round answer to Andrew Flintoff, but despite a couple of bright bursts he was dropped for both matches in Bangladesh.

He will start the mini-tour to Malaysia and the Champions Trophy trying to move up a ladder that also includes the well-placed quartet of Michael Clarke, Damien Martyn, Phil Jaques and Shane Watson. "I'm a couple off the pace at the moment, but I've got some time," he said when asked if he was confident of playing an Ashes Test. "There's a bit of cricket before then and I've just got to score heavily."

Five wickets in the MCG Test against South Africa and two half-centuries were the highlights of his eight-game streak last summer, but despite being involved in no losses he failed to generate any consistency. The pressure of not performing restricted his usual free-spirited play, which he exhibited with success only during the second innings at Melbourne, when he blasted a ground-record six sixes in his 72, and at Cape Town with 55 from 47 balls.

"I was very nervous and I felt like every game was my last," he said. "I was putting unnecessary pressure on myself. I wasn't relaxing into the game and enjoying it, like I usually would. That led to some average performances."

Symonds said he had learned from the experience and would return to his natural ways if given another opportunity. "If I get another chance," he said, "I'll just go out there and enjoy myself and not put any pressure on myself."

Surgery on his left wrist in May has left him with an l-shaped scar, but he said it was healing well and would not restrict his batting. "They took a bit of bone out," he said. "I have strengthened it up and been batting a lot with it."

Symonds's other main job in the off-season was producing a ghosted autobiography that is due for release before the Ashes series. "It's going really well," he said. "I was a bit apprehensive about it at the start, thinking how am I going to go writing a book? But it's coming together well."