Mark Waugh under pressure to hold place

Mark Waugh arrived back in Sydney on Thursday under increasing scrutiny about his place in the Australian cricket team.

Despite being one of Australia's finest players over the past decade, the 37-year-old is under pressure to hold his spot after a poor run of form, which included averaging less than 20 on Australia's just completed tour against Pakistan.

But Waugh, who made a half-century in the first Test with Pakistan but failed in the second and third Tests, said he was satisfied with his form and predicted a big score was just around the corner.

"I'm batting well enough," he told reporters at Sydney airport.

"In the first Test, I let a good chance slip by there in making 55 and the Tests in Sharjah...I was a bit disappointed not to make runs, but these things happen."

Waugh's biggest threat to keeping his place in the Australian Test side is South Australian middle-order batsman Darren Lehmann.

Lehmann, who went to Sharjah with the Test team but did not play, was given permission to return home a day earlier than the rest of the squad to play for South Australia in the domestic interstate series, giving him one last chance to press his claims before the selectors announce the team for the first Test on Monday.

Mail Cricket Editor