Clarke ruled out of crucial New Zealand game

After their meek surrender against England in their opening game,Australia will have to work on their batting frailties when they take on a confident New Zealand in a Group A match of the Champions Trophy on Wednesday.

After their meek surrender against England in their opening game,Australia will have to work on their batting frailties when they take on a confident New Zealand in a Group A match of the Champions Trophy on Wednesday.

Australia,sans their skipper Michael Clarke,proved to be no match to the English as they suffered a 48-run defeat to start their campaign on the wrong foot. With Clarke suffering from a back problem and nowhere near making a comeback,it will be a big test for the stand-in skipper George Bailey to turn Australias fortunes around. Australia bowlers Clint McKay,James Faulkner and Shane Watson did a decent job in restricting England to 269 when they were looking at a 300-plus score at one stage but they still need to add more sting to their attack.

The Aussie batsmen could not pose any threat to the England bowlers,who strangulated them with both pace and spin. Barring skipper Bailey and allrounder James Faulkner,none of the batsmen were up the mark. What was baffling was that most got starts but later blew those away.

The two-time champions,hence,will have to rethink their team composition as another defeat will pave their way for an early exit from the tournament. We need to get the balance right,we need to get partnerships going,that needs to be addressed. We have to turn around things, Bailey had said after their loss to England.

New Zealand,on the other hand,are high on confidence having started their campaign on a winning note,beating Sri Lanka by one wicket. The 2000 winners came into the tournament after a morale-boosting 2-1 series win over England and they will look to carry forward their good form when they clash with Australia.

Left-arm medium pacer Mitchell McClenaghan,pace spearhead Kyle Mills and off spinner Nathan McCullum shared eight Sri Lakan wickets among them in their opener and skipper Brendon McCullum will expect a similar effort from them on Wednesday as well. However,the Kiwis will have to work on their batting and will not want the job to be left to the last pair like it happened against the Sri Lankans.

New Zealand have an able opener in Martin Guptill,who smashed two consecutive hundreds in the England series,while their batting mainstay Ross Taylor has also been in good form ahead of the champions Trophy. Brendon McCullum,meanwhile,can demolish any attack on his day. But New Zealands batsmen panicked during their chase against Sri Lanka in the low-scoring match and this is one area in which the skipper would want his team to improve.

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