Michael Clarke has made it clear to the home crowd that the new-look team was not invincible and fans should not have unrealistic expectations.
MELBOURNE: Their recent losses to India seems to have dented Australian cricketers' confidence as middle order batsman Michael Clarke has made it clear to the home crowd that the new-look team was not invincible and fans should not have 'unrealistic' expectations from the young Test side.
Clarke, who last week declared his ambition to be Australia's next Test captain, said the team's defeats during the recent one-day series in India and the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa were an indication that it was unrealistic to expect the side to dominate world cricket as it did in the previous decade when Shane Warne, Glenn MacGrath and Damien Martyn were a part of the set up.
"I think the Australian public has taken the Australian cricket team's form for granted because we have had so many great players and they have performed so good for 10-15 years," Clarke said.
"I think it is unrealistic now and I think that has shown recently. We didn't win the Twenty20 World Cup. We only won 4-2 in the Indian one-day series and that was a tough series," he was quoted as saying by the 'Courier Mail'.
"I hope we win every game we play, but the reality is it can't happen."
Australia has not been beaten in a home Test series since its 1992-1993 loss to the West Indies, and it has lifted the past three World Cups, remaining undefeated in the past two editions.
The side won a world-record 16 Tests in a row between 1999 and 2001, and captain Ricky Ponting and his predecessor Steve Waugh have the highest winning percentage of any Australia skipper who has played more than 10 Tests.
Clarke predicted the baptism of fire would start against Sri Lanka and India this summer.
"We have two very strong teams coming here and we have to give credit to other sides in the world who are playing very good cricket," Clarke said.
"I believe it's going to be very different this summer to past summers. It's going to be very tough. But I'm really looking forward to the new generation of youth coming through."
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