North to hold spot, Australia wait on Harris

Marcus North will hold his spot in the Test side for at least one more match, although skipper Ricky Ponting admits North is feeling the heat.

Ponting says talented NSW youngster Steven Smith, who is also in Australia’s squad for the two-Test series against New Zealand, will just have to wait a little longer.

North has scored only 294 runs at 24.50 in Shield cricket this summer and averaged 10.25 in the summer Test series at home against Pakistan.

“There’s no doubt that he’s probably feeling a bit of the pressure,” Ponting said at Wellington’s Basin Reserve ahead of Friday’s first Test.

“I’ve done a lot of work with him actually, one-on-one stuff the last couple of days.

“That (pressure) probably explains why his form in the last half of the Shield season probably hasn’t been as strong as he would have liked.

“Just that expectation I guess and that pressure that was more spoken about in the media than anywhere else.

“I know he was disappointed to let a couple of opportunities slip in the summer but you look at what he’d done in the Test matches before that in England and in South Africa (scoring three hundreds), he just looked like a Test player that was going to be about for a long time.

“I will continue to get some work done with him and talk about his games but just what I’ve seen the last couple of days I am pretty confident that he will have a good Test match here.”

Australia will also gamble on a player with no Test experience, only one first-class game behind him this summer and a query over his fitness.

Queensland pace bowler Ryan Harris, who has been suffering from a side-muscle strain, is set to open the bowling at Wellington’s Basin Reserve with Doug Bollinger.

Harris has been in sensational form at one-day international level with 29 wickets at 15.51 in 12 matches.

But a knee injury restricted the 30-year-old to just one Shield game for the Bulls this summer before a series of eye-catching performances in the ODI tournaments against West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand.

Victoria’s one-Test player Clint McKay is also in Wellington vying for the spot left vacant two months ago by Peter Siddle’s back injury.

“Ryan will play if he gets through as well as we want him to today and we’ll wait and see how he wakes up in the morning,” Ponting said.

McKay would be handy on a Basin Reserve pitch which Ponting expects to offer good bounce and carry for the quick bowlers.

However Ponting says the form of Harris with the new ball has been difficult to overlook in the ODI matches.

“He is a guy who can genuinely swing the ball at brisk pace,” Ponting said.

Ponting said Michael Clarke was in good shape mentally for the two-Test series despite a massive disruption last week when he went home to Sydney and broke off his engagement to model Lara Bingle.

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© 2010 AAP