Doherty under no illusion after WC selection

Xavier Doherty might have pipped Nathan Lyon to make the cut for the World Cup next month but the left-arm spinner knows that it has put him under more pressure to live up to the faith the Australian selectors have put in him.

Doherty, who is the first-choice spinner for Australia in the ODIs, has been given a World Cup berth for his consistent and accurate bowling but knows the team might need his services on certain occasions and that he will play a second fiddle to the team's pace battery.

"I'm under no illusion I probably won't play every game, and there are probably certain pitches where I'll be looked at to come into contention. Given the way the team's been picked over the last few years, there's a game in Perth and Brisbane, and given the strength of our fast bowlers that would be the way they would look. But I feel if I'm bowling at my best I can make it pretty hard for the selectors as well," Doherty was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Doherty, 32, has played 57 ODIs since making his debut against Sri Lanka in 2010 when he took 4/46. His record of 54 wickets at 39.18 isn't inspiring but it hasn't stopped him from being Australia's leading slow bowler in the limited-overs format.

However, he had serious doubts whether the call for the World Cup will eventually come after Lyon was recalled for ODIs after two years in August last year. "It's a nice one to get and you never know. I had myself in the team, then out of the team, and gradually the closer it got I wasn't sure at all. So when the phone call came I was pretty excited. I tried to avoid all the talk and the speculation but any time you seem to turn on the TV someone's throwing a name up there and a smokey position and usually for that spinning spot. Given there was so much speculation, I probably do feel that expectation to really nail it, and when my opportunity comes to take it," he said.

The new rule that allows only four fielders outside the inner ring, Doherty feels, has also been a reason why he made it to the 15-man squad. His style of bowling affords the captain to not fret about conceding easy runs. "It (four-fielder rule) makes it tough for legspinners, which has probably given me a bit of an advantage when it's come to this selection. You really can't afford to bowl bad balls because you've lost that protection to one side of the ground. So when you're spinning the ball in, for me to a left-hander, it does make it hard. It means one side of the ground's going to be unprotected," he said.