Oz pacer Clark believes county stint could have prepared him better for the Ashes

Sydney, Apr. 29 (ANI): Australian fast bowler Stuart Clark has admitted that his chances of making it to the national squad for the forthcoming Ashes series against England could have been better served if he had had a stint with an English county rather than taking part in Australia's current one-day series against Pakistan.

Seeking to build his workload after elbow surgery in December, Clark has so far bowled 11 overs in the series, eight in game one, rested for game two and three in a spin-dominated third match.

"That's no secret that I need to do some more cricket work. But I'm getting a fair amount of cricket work in the nets, which is something I wouldn't have got at home, being winter, and there's not many facilities available other than probably Brisbane. England, obviously I would have gone and played county cricket (if not selected for Australia) and it would have been more competitive," Clark said.

"So just bowling repetitively, like batters hit lots of cricket balls and baseballers throw lots of pitches, it's just bowling lots of cricket balls and that's exactly what I need," he added.

Asked whether a county stint would have been better preparation, he said it was a "50-50" call.

"I would have played some more cricket as such, but this is an opportunity to play for Australia and no one should ever turn that down," he said. (ANI)