losses turn Pup's career to Ashes; to quit after series

Ravaged by injuries and struggling for form like never before, inspirational Australian captain Michael Clarke on Saturday announced he would retire from Test cricket after the fifth and final match of a horror Ashes series.The 34-year-old, whose prolific career has been marred by nagging back and ankle problems that required him to go under the knife earlier this year, has already quit ODI and Twenty20 cricket.

“I’ll have one more Test and that will be the end of my career. I’m retiring from international cricket,” Clarke said after Australia were hammered by an innings and 78 runs in the fourth Ashes Test here on Saturday. Nicknamed ‘Pup’, Clarke, who took over from Ricky Ponting in 2011, has not scored a 50 in his last six Tests — a miserable stat for a player who made 12 hundreds in his first 30 matches as captain.

Saturday’s defeat gave England an unassailable 3-1 lead and the coveted urn. The final match is scheduled from August 20 at the Oval and would be the 115th five-day game for the dashing right-handed middle-order batsman who scored a match-winning 151 on his Test debut against India at Bengaluru in October 2004.