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MICHAEL Clarke is going through a rite of passage experienced by every modern Australian captain, a lean trot.
More than 30 years ago Greg Chappell publicly pleaded with the selectors not to drop him after a string of ducks against the then mighty West Indies pace attack.
Clarke walks off the ground at St George's Park after yet another failure. Source: AFP
One of Australia's finest batsman and captains, Chappell is part of an unbroken line which currently sees Clarke experiencing his own barren streak. He has gone 11 innings with a top score of 24 after centuries in the opening two Tests of the Ashes series earlier this summer.
Clarke is well aware that as a captain and senior player he is letting the team down. What six wins on the trot may have papered over, an embarrassing 231-run loss in the second Test at Port Elizabeth could not.
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But as one of just six Australians with more than 8000 Test runs, at an average of 51, Clarke has been on enough swings and roundabouts during a decade of international cricket to know that with hard work these troughs tend to right themselves.
And hard work it was on what should have been the fifth and final day of the second Test, joining those members of the squad who did not play the Test in a solid net session. The only other player from the team who fronted was Alex Doolan.
The unscheduled practice also doubted as a continuing fitness test for Shane Watson, who bowled off his full run for the first time since suffering a calf problem doing fitness work early in the tour.
Shane Watson training in the nets in South Africa. Source: News Corp Australia
Watson felt no discomfort but must prove to coach and selector Darren Lehmann that the all-rounder is capable of bowling a reasonable quota of strong overs.
The players were relaxed and upbeat despite the heavy loss, knowing it had only been a week earlier that they had a big win at Centurion Park.
Clarke was annoyed with his shot selection during the first innings of both Tests, an attempted guided hook in Pretoria which was skied to fine leg and a bunt to cover at St Georges Park.
"When you get in you've got to cash in," Clarke said.
It may be some consolation to know that there are an impressive line of players behind him who have been through the same thing. His run drought is but a blip on the captaincy radar.
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Allan Border, who dragged Australia from the depths during the mid '80s, went four years late in his career without a century, due in part because as the team improved he increasingly declared on himself.
He passed 50 regularly and no one mentioned the lack of hundreds because of the endearment a grateful nation felt for him single-handedly carrying Australian cricket through its worst period.
Mark Taylor and Clarke have something in common, their flat spot average is 18. It's just that Clarke's has gone for two months and Taylor's lasted a year and a half.
Steve Waugh went 16 innings without a hundred as captain and later his career Ricky Ponting spent two years and 33 innings searching for triple figures.
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