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Captain Ricky Ponting shrugged off a pre-Ashes injury scare to train on Sunday ahead of Australia’s first World Twenty20 practice match.
A Cricket Australia spokesman said Ponting was not in doubt for Monday’s warm-up against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge after being hit on the wrist with a ball on Saturday.
“He’s iced it, he’s got a bandage on it, there’s no worry with it whatsoever,” the spokesman said.
“It’s just a whack on the wrist basically … it shouldn’t be any issue at all.”
Ponting bent down to pick up a ball when another ball struck by Mike Hussey in the adjoining net hit him on the right wrist.
The skipper left the field to apply an ice pack and later emerged from the changerooms wearing a bandage that covered his entire forearm.
But he showed no sign of discomfort the following morning as he took part in fielding and batting practice in Nottingham without any strapping on the arm that needed surgery last July.
Australia will have another hit-out against New Zealand at The Oval on Tuesday before opening their World Twenty20 campaign against the West Indies at the London ground on June 6.
Meanwhile, Michael Clarke – the man being groomed as the next captain – said he had no designs on the top job.
“I’m definitely not ready right now with the captain we’ve got,” Clarke said.
“I don’t think there’s too many players around the world that not only are as good a player as him but as good a leader. For me, I hope he captains until the end of my career.
“I think he’s got a long time yet left in his career in all forms of the game and for me as vice-captain, it just gives me an opportunity to get as close as I can to him and learn as much as I can from Ricky.”
Success in the newest and rapidly growing format is an important box to be ticked on Australia’s international report card.
To end the northern summer having won the World Twenty20, Ashes and one-day series in England would carry hefty bragging rights.
But so far, Australia’s Twenty20 marks have been average with 11 wins from 21 internationals – something Ponting and Clarke will want to address.
The skipper announced his team’s arrival with a press conference on Friday in which he almost immediately admitted he did not expect to be “answering too many questions about Twenty20” with the Ashes looming on July 8.
And while Ponting said the Twenty20 formed the immediate focus, Clarke was reluctant to give any air time to the highly anticipated Test series against England.
“The Ashes, everybody knows, is going to be a wonderful series and we are looking forward to it, but our priority is this Twenty20 right now and it is important that we focus 100 per cent in everything we do on this Twenty20,” Clarke said.
“We’ll worry about the Ashes in three weeks’ time, hopefully,” he added, indicating the Australians intend to do better than their semi-final loss to eventual champions India in the 2007 Twenty20 world championship and lift the trophy on June 21.
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