CRICKET:MICHAEL CLARKE has never missed a Test match because of the chronic back complaint that threatens to disrupt his Test career.

There was plenty of evidence on the second day at The Gabba to suggest he should have missed this one. It is just that Australia are in a state of denial.

Clarke is playing for two reasons: because he wants to and because Australia dare not imagine managing without him. In the meantime, the physiotherapists must be on overtime.

At least Clarke had a great view of the most engrossing part of the second day, the first hour of the afternoon when England fought their way back into the game only to founder on the redoubtable figure of Michael Hussey, 81 not out at the close.

It was just that with nine runs from 50 balls, Clarke did not play much part of it. He fell to about his only show of aggression, a trademark paddle-pull against a rising ball from Steve Finn that gave Matt Prior his 100th dismissal in Tests.

Hussey, a grounded sort of bloke who has seen most things in his career, emphasised that Clarke is viewed as indispensable by Australia, particularly so one presumes because they realise they need all the right-handers of quality they can lay their hands on to combat Graeme Swann’s threat to their middle order.

“He has been a bit sore leading into the game but he didn’t mention anything to me about his back and he was running fine,” Hussey said. “To be frank we need him. This is the Ashes. It is the biggest series of our lives.

He is one of the best batsmen in the country. I don’t know if he is exactly 100 per cent but whatever he is, he is a very important member of the team.”

There was no agonised stretching, no physiotherapist running on to the field, nothing that could be presented as proof that he was unfit.

Indeed, mention to a Test-match first-timer that one of the two Australian batsmen had a dodgy back and they would have observed Hussey’s ungainly, stooping progress between the wickets and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

But England’s pace attack hounded Clarke after lunch. Stuart Broad struck him on the helmet as he was static against a bouncer, doubts about the health of his back perhaps interfering with his natural instincts either to hook or take evasive action, and Jimmy Anderson, during an excellent spell of bowling, frequently passed his outside edge.

He should have been dismissed for a duck, only to be involved in one potentially decisive moment – England’s loss of their second and final umpiring review when they were convinced that he had inside-edged another good lifting ball from Finn to the wicketkeeper.

Aleem Dar’s decision stood when Hot Spot and close-up cameras showed no evidence of a nick, but Hot Spot can be unreliable, and it was no surprise when Snicko, which takes too long to set up to be used, but which is infinitely more reliable, suggested two overs later that England were right.