Michael Clarke believes the future of Australian cricket is in safe hands after his retirement from the international scene.
Clarke and Chris Rogers played their last Test and were sent off in style, winning the Oval Test by an innings and 46 runs, a result that was too late to affect the outcome of the series after England had regained the urn at Trent Bridge.
Passing the captaincy on to the ICC’s number one ranked batsman, Steve Smith, Clarke believes that Australia will bounce back quickly.
“There's going to be opportunities for a few of the batters,” he said. “I'd still like to see a few of the old heads stick around though.
“I've always believed the best teams have a mix of youth and experience and I think we can still have that in this Australian team.
“I don't know if selectors are going to go with that - that's up to them - but for me personally, I've always liked a team with both youth and experience because they work well together.
“That team's full of talent, there's no doubt about it. And there's individual players throughout Australia's domestic competition that have really stood up over the past couple of years.
"I think Smithy will do a fantastic job as captain, and I love that he's at the top of his game batting-wise.
“That helps you when you take over the captaincy, I believe. If you're comfortable with your own game it means you can now focus on the team.
“I think the growth of players like Nathan Lyon is really exciting for Australian cricket, Mitchell Marsh (too).”
Clarke ends his international career having played 113 Tests, scoring over 8,600 runs at an average of just under 50, and - having made the announcement at Trent Bridge a fortnight ahead of the Fifth Investec Ashes Test - he has no regrets.
“When I woke up this morning, I thought today I might have felt it a bit more and that I might have been quite emotional walking off the field for the last time, or being out there fielding,” he said.
“Fortunately, which is very rare for me, I've been able to hold my emotions in.
“Yes it's the end of my career and I'm very fortunate to have as much as I have for Australia.
“But this is not about me. I'm really grateful the boys got the result we were all after.
“We put in a lot of hard work throughout this series. To lose 3-2 is still disappointing but it's a nice way for Chris and myself to finish.
“There’s no doubt that my form over the last 12 months has gone downhill and I haven’t been able to regain what I had in that series in 2012-13, but the desire has still been there.
“If I thought I could go to Bangladesh or go to the Australian summer and play unbelievable cricket, I probably would have fought on, so I’ve probably accepted it’s the right time.
“I hope I can come back here (to the UK), sit and watch and be part of the cricket fraternity that supports and, if I am lucky enough, maybe even commentate.”
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