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Michael Clarke has warned his vice-captain Shane Watson
that he faces much stiffer competition for a place in Australia's Test
team by choosing to play as a batsman rather than an allrounder.
Watson will return to international cricket in Wednesday's ODI against
West Indies in Canberra, ahead of the four-Test tour of India, having
spent a month out of the game due to a calf injury that he aggravated
during the Boxing Day Test.
For the time being Watson has decided not to bowl, as it has typically
been bowling that has caused his many injury problems over the years. He
is desperate to enjoy a sustained run in the national team instead of
constantly battling niggles. Although he hopes to be in a position to
start bowling again ahead of this year's Ashes tour, Watson will for the
time being need to justify his place as a batsman only.
"I don't think anybody walks into the Australian cricket team. It's
about performance, and the strength of Shane is that he's performed over
a period of time, in all three forms of the game," Clarke said. "He's
vice-captain of the team and it will be great to have Watto back.
"As I've said to Watto, while he's not bowling he goes into a much
bigger pool of players ... the pool of batsmen is much bigger than the
pool of allrounders in Australian cricket at the moment. But Shane knows
if he's at his best, he's as good as any player in the world, let alone
in the Australian team. Our goal as a team is to help Watto get back to
his best."
On Monday night in Melbourne, Watson was named the Twenty20
International Player of the Year at the Allan Border Medal ceremony, no
surprise given his dominance with bat and ball at the World T20 in Sri
Lanka last year. But it has also been an injury-plagued pair of summers
for Watson, who missed all of the 2011-12 home Tests with calf and
hamstring problems and managed only three of the six played this season.
His position in the batting order has also been variable: in November
2011 he was opening on the tour of South Africa, then he filled the No.3
spot for most of his appearances last year before slipping down into
the No.4 space vacated by Ricky Ponting in December. Watson has spoken
of his desire to return to the opening position in Test cricket at some
point but he is aware that he needs to be happy with any spot available
for him as a batsman only.
"At this point in time it is purely as a batsman and wherever I fit in,"
Watson said of his role in the Test side. "It's been something that
I've been thinking about for a long period of time, especially over the
last 12 months, when things haven't gone exactly to plan with my body.
Hopefully I can just get some continuity with my batting over the next
few months and then slowly build into getting some bowling under my
belt.
"The perfect world for me would be making sure I'm able to bowl and
contribute with the ball during the Ashes. I know that's looking a long
way forward, but even just physically to be able to give myself a chance
to get to that is a dream for me at the moment."
Over the course of Watson's career, he has played 38 Tests of a possible
89, the majority having been missed through injury, and his main goal
now is to allow himself to pursue a period of stability. That begins
with the remaining three ODIs against West Indies, his first matches
back at the elite level after returning via grade cricket and a Ryobi
Cup match for New South Wales last week.
"One of the hardest things about being injured is coming back and trying
to find form as quick as you possibly can," Watson said. "Hopefully I
can do that over the next couple of weeks leading into the Indian Test
series. Then we'll see how things evolve from there. But I'm certainly
not getting in front of myself because I know how quickly it can change.
"The times when I've had the most success playing for Australia has been
when I've been able to play games back to back. That's been one of the
most frustrating things about the past 12 months, it seems like a lot of
the times when I've been playing I've been coming back from injury,
which makes it difficult to be able to build some momentum and find some
form and hold some form, which I've been able to do in the past."
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
Feeds: Brydon Coverdale
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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