Cricket: Clarke looks forward to next challenge

Fresh from winning his first series as Australia's test captain, Michael Clarke is already looking ahead to the new challenges awaiting his cricket team.

Clarke scored his first century in 24 test innings yesterday to seal a 1-0 series win against Sri Lanka but has little time to celebrate with a tour of South Africa coming up next month. The Proteas boast a more unified and settled line-up than Australia faced in Sri Lanka and Clarke hinted there could be changes to the make-up of his test squad.

"Conditions are completely different where we go next," Clarke said. "We go to South Africa and I think we need to assess conditions and assess the squad that we take to South Africa.

"That's certainly something that we selectors will need to think about, talk about, but every individual player has done everything in their power to get picked on that next tour."

Australia, who also won the five-match one-day series 3-2 in Sri Lanka, took plenty of positives out of their tour.

Trent Copeland, Nathan Lyon and Shaun Marsh all debuted during the test series and shone at times, while Ryan Harris made a successful return from the ankle injury that ended his Ashes and opener Phillip Hughes scored a century in the final test to lift some of the pressure off his 22-year-old shoulders.

There was also the off-field concerns that had to be overcome in the wake of the Argus Review being released last month in Melbourne, with coach Tim Nielsen announcing he was stepping down after the third test in Colombo.

"I'm really proud of how we've gelled together," Clarke said.

"There's been a lot of stuff off the field as well that the playing group have had to deal with throughout this series.

"I think we've handled it really well so we deserve a lot of credit for that.

"Every single player has done nothing but grab their opportunity with both hands.

"You've got a guy running drinks in Usman Khawaja who batted like a genius the whole series, got a hundred in the tour match and was really unlucky to miss out in the [third] test match."

But although he was a first-up winner as captain and Australia have leaped above Sri Lanka into fourth on the world test rankings, Clarke wasn't going to rest on that series, with New Zealand and India to visit Australia after the South African tour.

"In regards to the cricket we've got coming up, we've got a lot of tough cricket," he said.

"We've got to be ready for that as well.

"I'm stoked with the start but it's just that, it's just a start."

- AAP