Harris hopes to keep steaming in to Australian summer

MELBOURNE: Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris has dashed any suggestion the Ashes might be his international swansong and said he hopes to keep playing into the Australian summer.
Harris will be 36 when Australia bunkers down for home Test series against New Zealand and West Indies but is determined to carry on as long as his battle-scarred body cooperates.
“My goal is to get back and play here in Australia, but again that’s a long way off,” Harris told Cricket Australia’s website (cricket.com.au).
“Hopefully there’s five Tests in a row in England first, let’s get through them, and see how I’m going.”
After coming back from knee surgery last year, Harris played three of Australia’s four home Tests against India but has been wrapped up in cotton wool since.
He was overlooked, somewhat controversially, for the co-hosts’ World Cup squad despite his fine record in One-day Internationals (ODIs), with selectors citing a need to preserve him for Australia’s bid to win the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001.
Australia’s leading wicket-taker in their 3-0 series defeat in the last Ashes tour in 2013, Harris will have plenty of pent-up energy to release given he is likely to miss the tour of the Caribbean starting later this month.
Harris was excluded from the tour, which includes two Test matches against West Indies in June, as it coincides with the expected birth of his first child.
Despite battling a litany of injuries throughout his career, right-armer Harris has been a key to Australia’s resurgence in the past two years and an excellent foil to main strike bowler Mitchell Johnson.
The pair are set to be part of a fearsome pace battery in England, with World Cup player-of-the-tournament Mitchell Starc keen to cement his place in the Test side.
“I’ve been retired three or four times over in the last five years, so I’m looking to England now,” Harris said of his fitness battles.
“I’ve played a lot of cricket over there... The concepts are all pretty much the same no matter what league you play in, that’s to bowl a fuller length and get them playing as much as possible.
“The ball swings and that suits me pretty well and suits our whole bowling attack really. “We haven’t won over there for a long time and hopefully we can turn that around this time.”