Rogers targets end of century drought

Australia

Cricket365
December 21, 2013

Opener Chris Rogers is determined to repay the selectors' faith by scoring a century during the fourth Ashes Test, which will get underway at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday.

The hosts have romped to an unassailable three-nil series lead on the back of big wins at the Gabba in Brisbane, the Adelaide Oval and the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground in Perth.

Captain Michael Clarke, the left-handed David Warner, the right-handed Steven Smith and all-rounder Shane Watson have all scored at least one ton during the five-match affair. Rogers and the inexperienced George Bailey have not.

"Every game, I think that's part and parcel of playing for Australia. I'm one of the batsmen who hasn't got a ton, so I'm under a little bit of pressure and probably haven't got the runs I had hoped for this series. I haven't been batting particularly well," conceded Rogers.

"There were a few things technically that haven't been great, but I did a bit of work with batting coach Justin Langer before the last Test and that was probably as good as I've felt. Hopefully that's a good sign, but it all comes down to how many runs you get."

While the Australians have done a superb job in exacting revenge over the English, who secured a three-nil series success in the United Kingdom earlier this year, Rogers hoped to maintain the momentum in front of near capacity crowds at the MCG.

"To play in front of a Boxing Day crowd, it doesn't get any better. It may be a world record crowd, so to go out and open the batting against that I think it's going to be great fun – daunting, but amazing as well," he added.

"Three-nil in England, we didn't think that was a fair result. But if we ended up being four-three or five-three up, after 10 consecutive Ashes Tests, we would end up being happy with that. So there's a lot for us to play for."