Team united behind Clarke - Hussey

Michael Hussey, the Australia batsman, has said captain Michael Clarke enjoys the full support of his team-mates and that Australia are headed in the right direction under Clarke's leadership.

Clarke has had a successful start to his captaincy, leading Australia to four straight series wins since taking over from Ricky Ponting. However, he has also been embroiled in the controversy over the dropping of opener Simon Katich, with the latter suggesting Clarke had a role in keeping him out of the team.

"If you want to be part of this Australian team, you've got to go with the captain and we respect the way he wants to take the team," Hussey told AAP. "Even someone like Ricky who has been captain, he's jumping on board as well and it just shows that the guys really do want to play for Australia, we do want to play under Michael and I think we're definitely going in the right direction."

"It's been great for him personally - he's really taken the role with a full head of steam. He's very passionate about the role and he's very clear in how he wants to lead the team."

Under Clarke, Australia have won against Sri Lanka (Tests and ODIs), Bangladesh (ODIs) and South Africa (ODIs), who they beat 2-1 ahead of the two Test series starting on November 9 in Cape Town. Hussey said Clarke did encourage the team to enjoy their one-day series success, but attention has already turned to the Test series.

"If we can stick together and do the basics for long, long periods of time, which is what Michael's philosophy is, then I think we can definitely come out on top," Hussey said. "It's going to be a huge series ... it's going to be great hard Test cricket which is what we all look forward to, but I'm confident.

"We've got a very important first-class (tour) match coming up in Potchefstroom [on Tuesday]. We've got to make sure we get into Test mode."