MELBOURNE, Dec 8: Adam Gilchrist has said he was “reluctant to assume” that Michael Clarke’s elevation to captaincy for Australia’s Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Perth made the 26-year-old batsman an automatic choice to succeed incumbent Ricky Ponting.

Gilchrist said he supported the decision of chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch about Clarke’s promotion but insisted that the team’s youngest batsman was only one of the candidates to replace Ponting in the long-term.

”It’s not just Pup (Clarke). Mike Hussey was captain in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy earlier this year and is obviously a candidate,” he said. “It’s a matter of the selectors exploring all the options as they plan for the future. They should certainly keep ‘Huss’ in the loop and any other guys they think will be worthy of higher honours down the track. I’m reluctant to assume that he (Clarke) has automatically got the job and I don’t think he assumes that either,” Gilchrist was quoted as saying by ‘The Australian’.

A former Australia Under-19 captain, Clarke is the most obvious long-term candidate simply because of his age.

The only other batsman under 30 in the Australian team is new Test opener Phil Jaques, who has cemented his place after Justin Langer’s retirement and is not in the ODI side. Hussey, at 32, is only six months younger than Ponting, who turns 33 later this month.

”It makes sense starting to invest in a few guys for the future. He (Clarke) has shown a real eagerness to learn all about leadership and enjoyed it in his younger days. He has a thirst to learn about the role and is quite an astute tactical thinker,” Gilchrist added.—Agencies