The Curious Case of Shane Watson

During the recent Twenty20 series between Australia and Sri Lanka Ian Harvey, a regular talking head in the Sky studio, was asked to look ahead to the composition of the Australian side for the forthcoming tour of India. His first observation was not that they would need to find players who could bowl and play spin but rather that Shane Watson should be fit and so would resume his rightful place in the top order. Now that the series is two tests old I see plenty of online comments criticising the make-up of the Australian side, but not one stating what seems to be the obvious: that Shane Watson is a useful all rounder when he is fit enough to bowl but that he is ill equipped both technically and mentally for a position in the top four of a serious test side.

When Watson was promoted to open the batting at the expense of the shell-shocked Philip Hughes it was a decision that was greeted with widespread derision. To Watson’s credit he performed far better than his critics, and his first class record to that point, suggested would be the case, but he now seems to be enjoying an enhanced reputation largely off the back of the fact that he was less rubbish than most people expected him to be. In forty tests he averages thirty-six with just two test centuries, a poor return for a player batting in the top four and one which would not be indulged by any of the other top test sides, particularly not in a player who is approaching his thirty-second birthday. Worse, he averages just 25.2 over the last two years, a period that has included a third of his tests and in which he hasn’t scored a single century. Without his bowling, which is going to be less relevant as injuries heal more slowly, and taking into account his fielding, which has all the athleticism and grace of a man running through knee deep mud, he simply isn’t worth his place in the Australian test side. It has reached the point where a Watson test innings can be predicted fairly easily: some crunching boundaries early on, a slowing down in the scoring rate once the ball is softer and the initial adrenalin rush has passed, a spot of comedy running and then a dismissal either playing around his front pad or pushing with hard hands outside off stump.

He deserves credit for taking on a challenge to the best of his ability when it was given to him and he remains a fine and destructive one day and Twenty20 player, but Australia will not improve in testing conditions until they accept his shortcomings and either play him as an all rounder batting at six or don’t play him at all. Given John Inverarity’s apparent enthusiasm for multi-skilled players and a general, if inexplicable, high opinion of his abilities I’m not expecting this to be any time soon, however.