Gillespie plots return for India tour
ADELAIDE - Recuperating Australian paceman Jason Gillespie has his sights set on next month's cricket tour of India
Valkerie Mangnall
31-Jan-2001
ADELAIDE - Recuperating Australian paceman Jason Gillespie has his sights
set on next month's cricket tour of India.
Gillespie has been sidelined since the Sydney Test match between Australia
and the West Indies early this month with a strained hamstring tendon.
But hours of physiotherapy and gym work have the injury-ravaged South
Australian raring to play again.
"I'm getting fit at a pretty good pace," Gillespie told AAP today.
"It's hard to say if I could just front up and play tomorrow. If I really
had to I suppose I could bowl tomorrow but I'm not going to take that risk
at all."
Gillespie was pleased with a 20-minute net bowling session with the
Australian one-day squad in Adelaide last Thursday, where he used a
shortened run-up.
He was planning another net session tomorrow and hopes to play for the
Redbacks in a Mercantile Mutual Cup fixture against Queensland at Adelaide
Oval on February 9.
It is difficult to believe national selectors would risk the 25-year-old in
the current international one-day series against Zimbabwe and the West
Indies with Australia dominating the competition so heavily.
The Australians remain unbeaten in the series, changing their line-up at
will while neither opponent looks close to posing any threat.
"Obviously I'd like to play for Australia (in the one-dayers)," Gillespie
said.
"I haven't totally ruled it out or anything but there's a lot of factors -
whether they decide to pick me or not or save me for a later date. The team
is doing pretty well, they haven't really needed me."
"I'd be happy to play for Australia or South Australia. I basically just
want to play cricket at the moment."
Gillespie is sure to be at the forefront of selectors' thinking for
Australia's tour of India, with the team departing in two weeks.
After such an easy summer, Australia will need all the firepower it can
muster to extend its world record 15-Test winning streak in India, where it
has not won a series for 31 years.
"I believe I'd be ready to go on that tour if selected, that's the aim at
this stage, to be fit for that," Gillespie said.
Beyond India there is Australia's Ashes tour of England.
The last time Gillespie made that trip, in 1997, he returned with a stress
fracture in his back and he has suffered a horror run of injuries since
then, including a broken leg after an on-field collision with Steve Waugh in
Sri Lanka in 1999.
"Every cricketer's dream is to tour England, I've been fortunate to do it
once and hopefully I can get myself on another tour," he said.
-- AAP