Australia coach Darren Lehmann is expecting Michael Clarke to be fit enough to captain his country at the Cricket World Cup later this month.
The 33-year-old has been nursing a hamstring injury since December, which has seen his hopes of taking part in the tournament go right down to the wire.
However, with Clarke due to play for a Cricket Australia XI against Bangladesh in Brisbane tomorrow, Lehmann is adamant that his skipper is "fresh and ready to go".
"I think as a whole group we know he's ready to come back and play," he is quoted as saying by BT Sport. "We want him playing. He's the captain of our country and he's going to lead us really well in the World Cup.
"Fingers crossed he gets through the next couple of games and he's right to go. We're impressed with where he's at. He's going to be fresh and ready to go. We're really confident of that - and he's confident and that's more important. We need him to be back and playing well."
George Bailey has captained Australia's one-day side in Clarke's absence, although he has struggled for form of late which has led to questions regarding the perceived lack of leaders in the camp.
Lehmann added: "I think 12 months ago you guys said we'd not got enough leaders in our group but whoever is captain at the time will play the way we've moulded our gameplan.
"That's Michael first and foremost, then George, and if they're both not there then it's Steven [Smith]. I don't know why we're worried about leaders too much."
The World Cup gets underway on February 14.
Daniel Lewis
