Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre
Call me old fashioned, but Watson's bowling has been what has kept him in the Test side the last 18 months - if he wants to open the batting, he should go back to Shield and make some scores. No way should he be ahead of Warner/Cowan/Hughes just cause he says he doesn't want to bowl anymore. Just becomes one of the pack as a batsman.
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I think all that has been taken out of context a bit. Quite an insightful interview about it on Inside Cricket last week. He's given up bowling - for now - in order to focus on his batting and get some consistent cricket under his belt. He does prefer opening - he's stated that as his preference - but he's not given up bowling
so he can open, and he's not demanding the position. If he gets picked to bat at 4 again, or 6, or whatever, then he's happy to do that. While his batting output in the last 18 months hasn't really been acceptable, I'm still pretty convinced he's one of Australia's best six batsmen, so I'd just be leaving him at four personally; it's where he fits best for now. Six is up for grabs.