MELBOURNE: Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris has dashed any suggestion the Ashes might be his international swansong and said he hopes to keep playing into the Australian summer.

Harris will be 36 when Australia bunkers down for home test series against New Zealand and West Indies but is determined to carry on as long as his battle-scarred body cooperates.

“My goal is to get back and play here in Australia, but again that’s a long way off,” Harris told Cricket Australia’s website. “Hopefully there’s five Tests in a row in England first, let’s get through them, and see how I’m going.”

After coming back from knee surgery last year, Harris played three of Australia’s four home tests against India but has been wrapped up in cotton wool since.

He was overlooked, somewhat controversially, for the co-hosts’ World Cup squad despite his fine record in one-day internationals, with selectors citing a need to preserve him for Australia’s bid to win the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001.

Harris will have plenty of pent-up energy to release given he is likely to miss the tour of the Caribbean starting later this month.

Despite battling a litany of injuries throughout his career, right-armer Harris has been a key to Australia’s resurgence in the past two years and an excellent foil to main strike bowler Mitchell Johnson.

“I’ve been retired three or four times over in the last five years, so I’m looking to England now,” Harris said of his fitness battles.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2015

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