James Faulkner is confident he has lost none of the batting prowess which made him Australia's master finisher before his injury as he prepares for a likely return to international cricket on Wednesday.
The match-winning all-rounder needs only to recover well from Monday's training session to be included in Australia's XI for the World Cup game with Afghanistan in Perth. While the fixture has not been kind to Australia, it has served the host nation well in this instance, allowing Faulkner to ease his way back after a month out against an international newcomer rather than a Test nation.
Faulkner then has a high-pressure clash against Sri Lanka on Sunday followed by a match against Scotland to build his match fitness before the start of the knockout phase. It's unclear whether Faulkner will be able to deliver his full quota of 10 overs though the likelihood of him having to do so against the Afghans is diminished.
Faulkner has progressed steadily in his rehabilitation and was able to bowl at close to full tilt last week, albeit for a very short period. The injury to Pat Cummins has seemingly created an opening in the Australian XI though there will be a strong temptation to play paceman Josh Hazlewood on the bouncy WACA deck in a bid to further unsettle Afghanistan's batsmen.
Such a ploy would then force selectors to make a tough call on Shane Watson or Mitch Marsh, though it's expected the younger all-rounder would lose out. Faulkner had been in rare form before breaking down but he was able to continue batting in the nets despite the injury to his right side.
While it is no replica for time in the middle, he could not have done more to ensure his eye is still in. "Hopefully it [the time off] doesn't have much of an impact at all," Faulkner said. "Three or four weeks, you can look at it different ways, it has given me some time to freshen up and get my body feeling good again and hopefully it holds me in good shape come the end of this tournament. I was batting five or six days after the injury and although they told me to ease back on it in the first two weeks I was pretty much going 100 per cent which was a good thing.
"I think I was lucky being a left-arm bowler and a right-hand batsman, it wasn't the same side when I was batting."
Despite an average with the bat of 48, Faulkner will not be playing this game as a specialist batsman. "If I get through today, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be picked as an all-rounder," Faulkner said. "I'm not too sure how many overs they want me to bowl. Hopefully I can get through today. That's the main thing for myself, and not try to get too far ahead of myself, and leave the selectors with that decision."
The bulk of Australia's squad did not train on Monday after the long flight from Auckland to Perth. The team has concluded its post-mortem of the narrow loss to New Zealand and concluded the defeat had made them stronger. Faulkner, however, was guarded when asked whether he felt Australia had prepared adequately to combat the swinging ball in Auckland, which was questioned by Michael Clarke after the game on Saturday.
"You'll have to ask the individuals. I'm not going to comment on every single batsman in our line up – it's not for me to do," Faulkner said. "It's about them preparing and training how they want to train and so far we've been very successful as a team and you're going to come away with these little setbacks from time to time and hopefully we can get back on the winning path on Wednesday."
