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Injury concerns surround Andrew Symonds ahead of the Chappell-Hadlee Series opener in Adelaide on Friday. Symonds hurt his right ankle fielding in the Twenty20 and will undergo an assessment when he arrives in the city on Wednesday afternoon following the flight from Perth. “We will have a look then,” a Cricket Australia spokesman told Cricinfo.

Symonds’ problem, an aggravation of the injury he picked up in the second Test against Sri Lanka, was the only cloud surrounding Australia’s thumping 54-run victory against New Zealand on Tuesday evening, the curtain-raiser for the three-match one-day series. Symonds himself hit a typically entertaining 85 and was unbeaten in 45 balls.

It was Michael Clarke’s first match in charge and his usual captain Ricky Ponting, who sat out the match, was impressed with what he saw. “He’s 26 now, so in a few years, when I’m finished, he’ll be perfect age-wise and experience-wise to fit into the leadership roles,” Ponting told The Australian.

Justin Langer, Clarke’s former Test team-mate, also endorsed the view in the same paper: “I applaud the selectors for this short opportunity to give him a taste of it. It might just be the stepping stone for him to turn into the final product, as Steve [Waugh] and Punter have done.”

Clarke has dismissed talk of future captaincy, especially with Ponting locked in for years yet, and he was quite happy to hand back the reins. “I will take one from one and give it back to Punter, I am quite happy with that,” Clarke told Nine. “It was a pretty easy team to captain, the guys were fantastic, and our energy out in the field was spot on.”

Source:Cricket News