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Faulkner out to prove fitness for Perth

The World Cup could finally begin for James Faulkner at the WACA on Wednesday. His availability for Australia's fourth group match against Afghanistan in Perth will hinge on how he pulls up after bowling in the side's optional training session on Monday a

The World Cup could finally begin for James Faulkner at the WACA on Wednesday. His availability for Australia's fourth group match against Afghanistan in Perth will hinge on how he pulls up after bowling in the side's optional training session on Monday afternoon. He has been out since suffering a side strain during the tri-series final against England on the same ground on February 1.
"I am going to have a bowl today, half a dozen overs in the nets and hopefully I am available for selection, and hopefully I get picked," Faulkner said. "If I get through today I will be available for selection.
"Last week I bowled a couple of overs pretty much pretty close [to full tilt]. The difference is in the intensity of an ODI. I will look to have a solid day today and hopefully recover well and be ready on Wednesday afternoon."
Even as he gradually builds his bowling workload, Faulkner said that there had been little let-up in his batting practice due to the injury. "I have been batting since five-six days after the injury to be brutally honest and although they told me to ease back on in the first two weeks I was pretty much going 100% in the nets which is a good thing. I think I was lucky being a left-hand bowler and a right-hand batsman, it was not the same side."
Faulkner admitted that it had not been easy watching the action from the sidelines as his team-mates faced England and New Zealand, either side of the washout against Bangladesh, but chose to look at the positive side of the forced break.
"Hopefully it does not have much of an impact at all. Three or four weeks, you look at it different ways. It has given me some time to freshen up and get my body feeling good again and hopefully it holds me in good shape come the back end of the tournament.
"I'd be lying if I said I was not frustrated at the start. Any time you get injured is a shocking feeling and to do it at the time it happened, the same like last time before the World T20, was obviously quite hard to take at the start. I could not do much about that except continuing my rehab and I have been in good hands with the physios and team doctors to get me back in this position. Hopefully it all pays off.
"When I have had an injury, my knee and my side, they have not been little niggles that are one or two-weekers. Having said that, I have not been injured that much in my career, and you have to always try and look at the positives all the time, as hard as it is to swallow. The positive is that I am back sooner rather than later."

Abhishek Purohit is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo