Once in a Blues moon: Michael Clarke set to make NSW return as Ashes test looms David Warner and Michael Clarke pad up at NSW Blues' training for the game against Tasmania. MICHAEL Clarke and David Warner will make a rare appearance for NSW together after Clarke proved his fitness during a team training session at Blacktown yesterday. The Australian and NSW captain claimed he would wait until this morning before confirming his place in the Blues Sheffield Shield side for the match against Tasmania at Blacktown, beginning today. However Clarke completed two 15-minute net sessions at Blacktown yesterday afternoon and ran around in fielding drills without discomfort. Today starts the first of three Shield rounds in as many weeks for player to finetune or stake a claim ahead of the first Test against England, beginning at Brisbane's Gabba next month. However Warner has already been in explosive form for NSW during the just completed Ryobi Cup, impressing chairman of selectors John Inverarity. Michael Clarke will leave it until the last minute to decide whether he will play in NSW's Sheffield Shield clash against Tasmania on Wednesday. We were thrilled to bits with three centuries in his last four innings, where he scored very good hundreds. Inverarity hailed as "outstanding" and "compelling" Warner's domestic one-day record score of 197 in the semi-final against Victoria last Thursday. I think David's learned a lot during the past five or six months. His form during the Ryobi Cup was outstanding and we're looking forward to him taking that forward. It's been very good for David to be settled in his home bed for some months ... he's had a real chance to settle down and I think it's been in his interests to do that. Warner needs to make an early impression in the Ashes series after averaging just 24 on the tour of India earlier this year and 23 during the Ashes tour that followed.