Embattled Clarke still valuable for Australia: Border

The 34-year-old made the decision after discussions with his pregnant wife Kyly on Friday night, with Australia just three wickets away from handing England an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series.

For those living without phone, internet or television aerial connections, I’m talking about the 11 national representatives who were masquerading as batsmen at the Trent Bridge cricket ground in Nottingham.

“The criticisms of my game at the moment are deserved and I wouldn’t expect anything different, especially as the captain of the team”, he said in a column for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

Border believes Clarke still has a role to play in the current team and his proven record gives him the right to call time on his career.

“You never want to walk away”.

“There is no doubt I will always hold myself accountable as captain of the team”.

“I know it sounds a bit silly when you are 2-1 up – but the pressure was on here, on that first morning”.

“I’ve read that, but the selectors did not speak to me at all about being dropped or standing down or retiring”, he said.

The latest one adds weight to the notion he may be the casualty of it. But while he did get his foot to the pitch of the ball he fell to, unlike to Stuart Broad a day earlier, it made little difference to the way he struck the ball.

He might have harboured hopes of a similar dream departure in the longer format, but instead he has chalked up a fourth successive Ashes defeat on England’s patch – following 2005, 2009 and 2013 losses.

Clarke was adamant the outcome of the Trent Bridge Test, for the team as well as himself, would have no bearing on his intention to continue to play Test cricket.

Joe Root, with his second century of the series, and more career-best bowling as Ben Stokes took six for 36 in the second innings, hastened the decline of the tourists who will also lose their captain at the end of this campaign.

“My legacy will be dictated by others”.

Alastair Cook’s England came of age to regain the Ashes with a match to spare – much to the surprise of their captain. “I think my career, like my batting, has been highs and lows”. And all these stats make him one of the best batsmen of all time irrespective of his recent form as he could only manage to average at a miserable 16.71 this Ashes series.

“We have had a number of battles both as captain and as players”.

Or are they our best Test match batsmen we have available?