Klinger targets World T20, UK final glory

Run-machine Michael Klinger has pinpointed next year’s World Twenty20 tournament as his target for long-awaited national honours.

Klinger, who will today captain Gloucestershire against Surrey in the final of the Royal London One Day Cup at Lord’s, has been in phenomenal limited-overs form in 2015, highlighted most recently by a match-winning 137 not out in the tournament’s semi-final a fortnight ago.

The 35-year-old has transformed his game in the latter years of his career to beautifully suit the explosion of the T20 game, and was a key signing for Perth Scorchers last year as they surged to a second KFC Big Bash League title, scoring a thrilling Boxing Day century to underline his limited-overs class.

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In the Sheffield Shield, he was also among the runs, finishing second in the competition behind only Adam Voges with 1046 runs, including four hundreds.

Since heading to England this year however, the right-handed opener has taken his run-scoring prowess to remarkable new levels.

In the domestic One-Day Cup this year, Klinger has plundered 531 runs in seven innings with three centuries.

In the national T20 tournament, he scored 654 runs from 12 innings with another three centuries.

And in the first-class arena, he’s made 468 runs from 11 innings with a pair of centuries.

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The sum total of which is a staggering 1653 runs from 30 innings with eight centuries, and a combined average of 75.13.

Throw in his Sheffield Shield and Big Bash performances, and Klinger has scored 13 domestic hundreds inside the past 12 months.

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"There is no doubt that if I was scoring the runs at 25 that I have over the past four or five years then I would have played for Australia already," Klinger told ESPNCricinfo. "That's my challenge now. In the past 18 months I have gone above and beyond that measure, so I have to keep doing that.

"I think the last 18 months where I scored over 1000 runs in Shield cricket in Australia and did well in the Big Bash and then followed it up here in England has been my best prolonged period.

“It's important to keep it going for one more game here and then the season back home in Australia. The next step is to hopefully play in the T20 World Cup.”

Despite his age, Klinger’s hopes need not be unrealistic.

At the 2014 World T20 tournament, Australia selected a veteran trio of ‘Brads’ – Haddin, Hodge and Hogg – all of whom were past 35 years of age and none of whom had quite matched the kind of prolific form that Klinger has demonstrated over the past 12 months.

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And with Australia still to win that particular tournament, the right-hander may well see that format as his best chance to crack the international honours he craves.

"When I started to be successful in T20 cricket I captained (South Australia) Redbacks in the Champions League, we reached the semi, and ever since then I've been able to develop more of a short-form game and more of a 360-degree game," Klinger said. "We made the semi-final as underdogs, which for us was excellent. That made me really want to get better and better. You could see how T20 was going.

"I think my late development is just taking experiences in all conditions and learning from them.

“I have played in India a bit and I have played pressure games in domestic finals in Australia as well.”

Now Klinger shapes as the game-breaker for underdogs Gloucestershire as they seek to end their season with some silverware.

Standing in their way will be Surrey, and Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara, but Klinger is drawing on some of that experience he mentions to think positive ahead of the decider.

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“One of those (domestic finals in Australia he played in) really fills me with confidence going into today and I have been telling the lads about it for a while,” he told express.co.uk.

“At South Australia in 2012 we reached the (domestic one-day) final against Tasmania who had a

cast of big names including Ricky Ponting, George Bailey, Ed Cowan and James Faulkner.

“We were massive underdogs – on paper our side was nowhere near them – but we managed to get over the line.

“I just sense similarities this time round as well.

“I think we have a good young side who have been in good form throughout the tournament.

“They are going to Lord’s just believing they will win.”