Important runs and series wins were ever present in the first part of Ricky Ponting's captaincy, but his power base began to erode from the moment the supplies of each began to thin, culminating in resignation from his post after failed Ashes and World Cup campaigns. Clarke began his tenure with a handsome enough ODI series win over Bangladesh. But he knows greater battles, and the presence he can gain by how he fights them, are yet to arrive.
"I certainly feel like I've got the support and respect as a player because I've played a lot of international cricket. For me it's about now gaining that respect as a captain and a leader and I guess the first and foremost way to do that is to have some success on the field, to get some wins," Clarke told ESPNcricinfo before his return home from Dhaka.
"Now is an opportunity for me to get home and have a really good think about what's happened over the last 12 months and where I see this team going over the next 12-24 months, and how we can set some goals and have some targets we try to achieve.
"I don't really know how the players feel, I guess they'd be happy because we got the result [in Bangladesh], we won and for me I didn't want to change too many things straight away, it was about coming here, training hard, preparing well and playing some good cricket on the filed. Now I've got this time to assess things, speak to the right people and get some guidance and some help, and assess where we're at."
Clarke's own batting is vital to the success of his leadership, and on the evidence of the summer's Ashes series he has much work to do. England's relentless line of attack around off stump left Clarke either fishing or floundering, and after nine Test matches at No.4 his average is a sick-looking 21.58, with only two half centuries.
There remains an observation of Clarke, common among former players, that his batting has lacked the knack for spinal innings in the vein of a Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor or Allan Border. He has played some attractive and determined knocks, sure, but a gap exists in his CV when it comes to match and series-defining scores. In that sense Clarke's most memorable effort remains the 151 made on his Test debut against India at Bangalore in 2004, something he must transcend as captain.
Read more
