Australian skipper Michael Clarke has backed Cameron White to recover from the slump that is threatening his place in the starting XI.
Just a year ago, White was considered one of the deadliest hitters in the game, able to hammer an attack late in an innings but also capable of constructing a more constrained knock.
However, the Victorian last scored in ODI fifty 17 innings ago, in October of last year and his rough patch continued on Saturday when he stumbled through a laboured innings of 20 off 50 balls against Bangladesh.
Despite this, Clarke retains faith in White and his technique, and even suggested that his occasional leg spin (he bowled for the first time in 18 months earlier in the week) was a plus point to having him in the team.
"We'll wait and see, Whitey's a huge player for us, not only with the bat but as I've said with the ball as well, he only bowled one over today but I always had that option, which is handy," said Clarke.
"Whitey's performed really well in one-day cricket for Australia throughout his career. He obviously hasn't made a big score of late and I know he's working his backside off to try to make that big score.
"I think he's had success playing for Australia the way he plays, and I continue to tell him to back himself and do things his way.
"He just hasn't been able to get that start and be in a position then to accelerate. So I'm confident if he keeps doing what he's doing, and keeps working as hard as he is, he'll turn it around, because he's got a lot of talent, we've seen that already.
"Conditions were quite hard to start today as well so it did take everybody a bit of time to get in and they've got four pretty good spin bowlers as well."
One man who did look good at the crease was former captain Ricky Ponting, who made 34 off 31 before he was run out after a mix up with Shane Watson.
"Ricky's been so supportive and he's made my job a lot easier by giving me advice and help, and by being one of the boys, which makes it easy for me," said Clarke.
"I have a great relationship with Ricky and I was very confident coming here he would do everything in his power to make my job easier to help me out, and I was certainly right about that today.
"I thought he batted beautifully and was very unlucky to get run out. In my opinion he's still one of the best fielders in the world and he showed that today. He's 36 going on 25 at the moment, running around like a youngster and today he batted as well as he did in the World Cup in that last game against India," added the New South Welshman.
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