Test cricket now demands all- round skills like one day and Twenty 20 format: Clarke

Melbourne, Apr 16(ANI): Australian captain Michael Clarke has reckoned Test cricket is following the evolutionary process of its one-day international and Twenty20 cousins where players with all-round skills are in high demand.

"I reckon you need to have at least two strings to your bow to be part of this set-up at the moment, the way the game's going, the way international cricket is. I guess we've said that for a long time in one-day cricket and then Twenty20 cricket, and now Test cricket is the same," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Clarke, as saying at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad.

"You need to be able to give your team a few overs or be a specialist fieldsman in a certain position to take that vital catch, and I see this team as no different. I see overs from a lot of the batters as important as the overs you get out of your frontline quicks. Hence the other side of the coin, the runs our tail make are as important as the ones the top order make," he added.

Clarke wants his players to be proficient in both batting and bowling, as it not only increases his options in the field but also strengthens the team's batting.

It was demonstrated in the first Test against the West Indies, most notably by the efforts with the bat of tail-enders Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus and Nathan Lyon, who turned the match around with 132 runs.

Clarke said he was always looking for an opportunity to improve his game.

"If I feel like I'm hitting them all right in the nets, or in the game, I don't want to bat in the nets, [but] I still go and train in my bowling and fielding. That's the Australia n way and I'd like to see that continue," he added. (ANI)