What happened to Michael Clarke’s batting form?

What happened to Michael Clarke’s batting form?: Michael Clarke, the Aussie Test skipper, is one of those complete batsmen whose aggression complements his batting style. After the retirement of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Mahela Jayawardene over the past few years, Clarke is the only classy batsman to stay active in Test cricket. None of the batsmen from recent times can match with Michael Clarke’s enchanting batting style. Albeit, a cricketer’s real talent is gauged with his actual performance on the field. Unfortunately, Clarke failed to live up to his own standard over the last few months.

To be honest, all is not well with Michael Clarke these days. Especially, his dismissals for 10 & 3 in both innings of the 3rd Test against England in Edgbaston at the ongoing Ashes Series invited a lot of media attention to the matter. Clarke has scored just 91-runs from the 5 innings that he played so far in the series and that too at an average of just 23-runs.

After the game when asked about his lack of form Clarke said that he doesn’t think there is lack of form but believes it is about preparations and has been putting in a lot of effort, though things did not go their way in the test. He also said that they might think of changing batting positions from 4 to 5; as number 5 is the position he has done his best at. But maintained that it would completely depend on what the team wants him to do.

What does Michael Clarke’s Statistics Speak?

1. The batsman took retirement from ODIs after the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 due to injury and his constant below-average performance in 50-over format over the last few years.

2. Clarke didn’t hit a ton over the last 8 month in any format of the game, his last 100 came in December 2014.

3. Clarkey returned to Test cricket against West Indies in June-last month, but he failed to score a single fifty at the Caribbean Island.

4. Michael Clarke’s average in test cricket is around 50 after 112 tests that he has played so far with 28 tons and 27 fifties. He has also scored around 8595-Test runs in his career.

5. Over the last fifteen months Clarke has failed to maintain an average of 50 in Test matches. This is definitely not a good sign for a cricketer of his stature.

The End of Michael Clarke’s Charisma?

In the last 15 innings, the Kangaroo captain could score only one ton. No one is opening the retirement call as yet, because he is just 34-year-old. But if he continues to perform miserably for the next few months, Cricket Australia will definitely take a call on it.

The veteran cricketer has to find his rhythm early or else the clamor for his retirement will grow more. Nonetheless, lots of young talented Aussie cricketers are in the cue for that single opportunity to represent Australia in international matches. Hence, Clark has to stay aware of the fact as well, that he does not hold up a spot which could have otherwise flourished another prospective career.

Hope to see the explosive Michael Clarke back in the remaining two Tests of the Ashes series. Age does hamper one’s performance on the field but just like a true fighter Clarke needs to self-analyse things, events, his confidence and performance to the mark he has set for himself. As of now, no one wants to see the prefix ex-cricketer before him name as he still has a lot of cricket left in him. His fans definitely want to see him scoring few more hundreds and get back on the winning ways with his futuristic team.