***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[GingerFurball]

Reckon Watson's place will be unde serious scrutiny after the series, assuming he recovers his fitness.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Reckon Watson's place will be unde serious scrutiny after the series, assuming he recovers his fitness.

Is it really long enough for that?

[Spikey]

yeah you don't like watson we get it

[Cabinet96]

Watson will have to be in terrible form for about 2 years before they consider dropping him.

[Spark]

More to the point even when he wasn't scoring runs he was contributing with the ball - he hasn't been a passenger.

[benchmark00]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Reckon Watson's place will be unde serious scrutiny after the series, assuming he recovers his fitness.

lol.

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by Spark

Is it really long enough for that?

Furball has this thing about how he thinks Watson's performances haven't been good enough as opener and he's going to keep posting that opinion in subtly different ways until someone seriously bites at it so he can tell us all why.

Fact is, whether Watson's performances have been good enough or not, Furball's the only person in the world who actually doesn't think they have been so unless he's on the selection panel, it's not going to happen. A more accurate post would've been "Reckon I'll be calling for Watson's head after the series, assuming he recovers his fitness."

[GingerFurball]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

Furball has this thing about how he thinks Watson's performances haven't been good enough as opener and he's going to keep posting that opinion in subtly different ways until someone seriously bites at it so he can tell us all why.

Fact is, whether Watson's performances have been good enough or not, Furball's the only person in the world who actually doesn't think they have been so unless he's on the selection panel, it's not going to happen. A more accurate post would've been "Reckon I'll be calling for Watson's head after the series, assuming he recovers his fitness."

He's a case where average doesn't tell the whole story. He doesn't bat for long periods of time, doesn't make big scores and comes straight from the Inzamam school of running. His record looks reasonably impressive taken in isolation but he does absolutely bugger all to help the team with his performances with the bat and risks running out his partners. Despite his average of 45 or whatever it is, I don't think his performances as an opener have been good enough. That's not to say I wouldn't have him in the team (which admittedlg isn't clear from my post), but there were murmurs about moving him down the order after Sri Lanka and I think there's legitimate questions about how he handles his workload. I don't think it's any coincidence that his best innings in the Ashes was in Perth where he wasn't required to bowl.

[Redbacks]

I agree, he's keeping the spot warm for a better opener. Until someone comes to knock him of the perch he will stay put. He is blowing good starts far too often.

[ganeshran]

Cummins seems to be quite a find from the matches he has played in. Great pace at such a young age

[Cabinet96]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

He's a case where average doesn't tell the whole story. He doesn't bat for long periods of time, doesn't make big scores and comes straight from the Inzamam school of running. His record looks reasonably impressive taken in isolation but he does absolutely bugger all to help the team with his performances with the bat and risks running out his partners. Despite his average of 45 or whatever it is, I don't think his performances as an opener have been good enough. That's not to say I wouldn't have him in the team (which admittedlg isn't clear from my post), but there were murmurs about moving him down the order after Sri Lanka and I think there's legitimate questions about how he handles his workload. I don't think it's any coincidence that his best innings in the Ashes was in Perth where he wasn't required to bowl.

To be fair it's not like many other Aussie bas men have been hitting 100's for fun recently. Watson was still the second highest run scorer in the Ashes, and if Australia didn't have his starts in the Ashes it could have been humiliating.

[Redbacks]

Originally Posted by Cabinet96

To be fair it's not like many other Aussie bas men have been hitting 100's for fun recently. Watson was still the second highest run scorer in the Ashes, and if Australia didn't have his starts in the Ashes it could have been humiliating.

3 innings defeats at home and 1/517 in Brisbane, not sure what could be more embarrassing.

[GingerFurball]

Originally Posted by Cabinet96

To be fair it's not like many other Aussie bas men have been hitting 100's for fun recently. Watson was still the second highest run scorer in the Ashes, and if Australia didn't have his starts in the Ashes it could have been humiliating.

You mean Watson's starts like the one he had at Adelaide? Where he and Hussey recovered very well from the shambles that was the first 13 balls, to the point where they'd put on 91 runs and recovered the innings from 2/3 to 93/3, before Watson threw away his wicket by slashing to gully and left Australia at 93/4, which is a pretty dire position.

That's precisely what I'm getting at with Watson. He scored 50 which looks good for his average, but his innings didn't really do much in terms of either rescuing the Test for Australia or even setting Australia up to potentially win it, something Watson does far too often. And Ponting and Clarke could at least point to getting absolute beauties from Anderson early on in their innings. Watson had done the hard work before throwing it away, and exposed the lower order to a ball that was barely 30 overs old.

[Cabinet96]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

You mean Watson's starts like the one he had at Adelaide? Where he and Hussey recovered very well from the shambles that was the first 13 balls, to the point where they'd put on 91 runs and recovered the innings from 2/3 to 93/3, before Watson threw away his wicket by slashing to gully and left Australia at 93/4, which is a pretty dire position.

That's precisely what I'm getting at with Watson. He scored 50 which looks good for his average, but his innings didn't really do much in terms of either rescuing the Test for Australia or even setting Australia up to potentially win it, something Watson does far too often. And Ponting and Clarke could at least point to getting absolute beauties from Anderson early on in their innings. Watson had done the hard work before throwing it away, and exposed the lower order to a ball that was barely 30 overs old.

But who can you say would have done a better job? Thats my point.

It's no doubt Watson has a problem with converting starts. I think because of his technique he can't pick off singles easily and therefore gets bogged down when the boundaries aren't coming.

[howardj]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

He's a case where average doesn't tell the whole story. He doesn't bat for long periods of time, doesn't make big scores and comes straight from the Inzamam school of running. His record looks reasonably impressive taken in isolation but he does absolutely bugger all to help the team with his performances with the bat and risks running out his partners. Despite his average of 45 or whatever it is, I don't think his performances as an opener have been good enough. That's not to say I wouldn't have him in the team (which admittedlg isn't clear from my post), but there were murmurs about moving him down the order after Sri Lanka and I think there's legitimate questions about how he handles his workload. I don't think it's any coincidence that his best innings in the Ashes was in Perth where he wasn't required to bowl.

Very interesting take on things. As an opener in ODIs, he does seem to be a little bit in cruise mode, sometimes jamming things up in the early overs and not going on with it when he does get a start. Agree with the general consensus though that he's a long way from being dropped. Doesn't mean that the call for his head is completely outrageous though (well, not completely).