Gilchrist steps into Ashes limelight

Adam Gilchrist steps into the cricketing spotlight tomorrow hoping to show that he has what it takes to lead Australia in the longer term.

Gilchrist will captain Australia at Headingley in the fourth Test in place of Stephen Waugh, who tore his calf during their seven-wicket triumph at Trent Bridge. He aims to extend an extraordinary run of 20 wins from their last 22 Tests.

With players like Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh to call upon, Gilchrist will be hoping for as smooth a ride as he had last winter in the emphatic five-wicket win over West Indies at Adelaide.

Groomed as the eventual successor to Waugh along with Ricky Ponting, Gilchrist coped well with the extra burden of leading the side and keeping wicket on that occasion, and he is the man in position to succeed when the current captain stands down.

But in the unlikely event of Australia losing this Test, Gilchrist's longer-term succession as skipper may come into question.

During the Waugh era, Australia have emerged as the most dominant force in cricket for decades. Gilchrist is aware of the potential for complacency in this Test with the Ashes already retained.

"We set certain goals for this series, the main one being winning the Ashes, and there is a genuine feeling among the group that this is still a very important game," he said.

"In previous years Australia have supposedly not played well in dead rubbers and we've probably been guilty of that in previous Ashes series so we have that as an incentive."

There is an additional need to adapt to the absence of Waugh, a world-class player with 20 wins from his 27 Tests in charge.

"Take Steve out of any team and they are going to be worse off than if they had him," admitted Gilchrist. "It's a great challenge for me and the team to try and go out there and succeed without the great leadership and batsmanship of Steve's.

"All I'll be trying to do is keep the team functioning the same way, I won't be making any radical changes.

"Steve's leadership has been a huge part of our success and I'll try and continue those themes and the direction the team has followed."

Gilchrist, who is playing in his first Ashes series, should also gain valuable indications as to whether he is cut out for captaincy on a long-term basis.

"It's going to be a good learning experience for me to find out if I'm the cricketer and the person that is capable of doing all those things," he said.

"I'm excited about it and it's an honour and it's good to have more of an input into the game, but at this level I can't remember too many games purely being won by a captain's move or a piece of captaincy.

"The direction of a game might change a bit and subtle things may help guide it the way you want it to go, but it's more about a team effort in the performance of the 11 players as a group effort."

Headingley has been a happy hunting ground for Australia in the recent past, despite the dramatic events there 20 years ago.

They began their recent Ashes domination here in 1989 when they won by a massive 210 runs, eventually winning the series 4-0. They've also won convincingly in 1993 and 1997, scoring over 600 in an innings on each of those occasions, and they must sense the chance of another victory over the next few days.