AUSTRALIAN Test star Michael Clarke has confessed that struggling with Hampshire last summer made him "deal with failure instead of success" for the first time in his career.

Clarke entered the fourth Test of Australia's series in India, which began in Mumbai this morning, as the second highest runscorer in the series from any side.

Only team-mate Damien Martyn, with 13 more runs, had scored more than Clarke, who is playing in his debut Test series.

Clarke announced his arrival on the Test scene with an epic 150 on his debut in the first Test at Bangalore last month.

That made him only the 17th Australian cricketer to score a ton on his Test debut.

Last week in the third Test, he cracked 91 and 73 at Nagpur to lave his series aggregate at 376 runs at 75.20.

But for Hampshire in 2004, Clarke averaged a modest 34.45 in the county championship and had to wait nearly three months to score his first ton.

Some were beginning to question whether the potential matched the hype.

But in July the former Australia U19s captain proved his critics wrong after plundering three consecutive championship hundreds - the first Hampshire batsman to do so sinceGordon Greenidge in 1986.

"I enjoyed playing for Hampshire this year and batting on some difficult pitches definitely helped to tighten my technique," Clarke said. "People have criticised my first class record, but it's important to remember that I was only 18 when I made my debut for New South Wales, and opened the batting in the one-day ING Cup.

"I had not scored a hundred in grade cricket before I made my debut for NSW.

"Playing for Hampshire this year was the first time I experienced English conditions and it helped me to deal with failure instead of success for the first time in my career.

"I am a better player for the experience of playing county cricket."

Hampshire captain Shane Warne has been ruled out of the fourth Test with a broken right thumb.

Leg-spinner Warne was forced out of consideration on the eve of the series finale at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, after sustaining the fracture while batting in the nets.

The record wicket-taker in Test history, experienced pain throughout the day and an X-ray revealed the damage.

Warne, 35, now faces a race against time to be fit for the home series with New Zealand which begins on November 18.

He currently has 541 Test wickets at 25.59, while Muttiah Muralitharan has 532 at 22.86 and is expected to return from a shoulder injury next month.