Clarke to play in Australia warm-up match

Peter Hanson

Clarke to play in Australia warm-up match image

Australia captain Michael Clarke is set to play in Wednesday's Cricket World Cup warm-up match against the UAE as he steps up his recovery from a hamstring injury.

Clarke was included in Australia's World Cup squad despite undergoing surgery in December.

The skipper was given a deadline of February 21 - when Australia play their second pool match against Bangladesh - to prove his fitness, although the 33-year-old refused to rule out his chances of playing in their opener against England.

Clarke, who played grade cricket in Sydney last week and featured against a Bangladesh XI, is now set to face UAE in Melbourne providing he has no negative reactions from a training session on Tuesday.

"Michael, if he gets through training tomorrow, hopefully he'll play the trial game on Wednesday," coach Darren Lehmann told Fox Sports.

"So that's a pleasing thing for us. He's trained the house down. Now it's a case of getting up to speed with the fielding and away he goes from there."

Lehmann has another fitness concern in the shape of all-rounder James Faulkner, who suffered a side strain during the recent tri-series with England and India.

Faulkner is not in contention to face England on Saturday, but Lehmann remains hopeful he will play a part in the tournament.

"He'll [Faulkner] have a bat tomorrow in the nets," he added. "So he's going okay. He won't play the first game.

""Everyone has them [injuries]. You just have to cope with it and deal with it. We have some good depth.

"We have good players who have missed out, so that's a good sign. If we have some injuries and we have to replace them, so be it. But at the moment they're all ticking along nicely."

Peter Hanson