Michael Clarke's return to the Australia World Cup team looks like being put on hold with a potentially destructive cyclone set to hit the Queensland coast on Friday.
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The storm, which will see winds of 285 kph (177 miles) hammering the northeast coast of the state, will bring torrential rain to Brisbane, where Australia are scheduled to play Bangladesh on Saturday.
With people in Brisbane and surrounding areas warned to stock up on supplies and volunteers handing out sandbags in the Queensland capital, it looks highly likely that the match at the Gabba will be washed out.
The teams have already been forced to practise indoors and if the Pool A match does not get underway or is abandoned then they will be awarded a point each.
That will be a blow to Clarke, who missed Australia's 111-run drubbing of England in their tournament opener last weekend and has only played a warm-up against the United Arab Emirates since sustaining a hamstring injury last December.
The match against Bangladesh was the deadline peremptorily handed to the batsman by selectors to prove his fitness for the campaign and Darren Lehmann said on Wednesday that Clarke would play.
"I'll be like a 10-year-old boy come tomorrow morning when I open the curtains and I'll be praying the rain has disappeared," Clarke wrote in his column for New Limited newspapers on Friday.
"But having said that our number one priority is hoping everyone in Queensland stays safe."
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