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What's the matter with Watson's batting?
- Thread starter Fiery
- Start date
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
Agree.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
Yeah, those drives and cuts he smashed basically through the fencing were terrible. God forbid someone plays a technically correct shot.
Top_Cat
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Well that certainly seems to be the perception. Every opportunity to pick Watson in the ODI side at least and bang, he's in there. The analogy to Shane Bond is a bit silly, though; when he's fit and NZ pick him, he knocks over the top 3 of just about any side he's playing against. Watto is picked, does little, gets injured. We've all been hearing for years about how Watto is potentially so many things but so far, the 'actual' result hasn't been all that flattering. So there's the perception that he hasn't earned the gilt-edged selection in the Aussie team and I think it has some truth; he's had some good seasons with the bat but with the ball, he's been found wanting at FC level even. Anyone remember the last time he took a 5fer for QLD? He has to prove himself like everyone else. Even obviously fantastic batsmen like Rick Ponting and Michael Clarke needed some serious contributions for NSW before they were picked. And no, averaging almost 50 at FC isn't enough because raw ability clearly isn't the problem here. He has to get through a season first.
Has great physical ability with bat and ball but injuries from bowling seem to be putting the brakes on his career. He's clearly a better bat than bowler so I think he should be selected as a top-6 who can contribute with the ball because picking him as one of the four bowlers in the team weakens the attack quite a bit. The injury excuse is getting a bit tiresome too. He's had stress fractures at 14, 16, 18 and 21 with a bunch of hammie injuries in between. Someone is trying to tell him something about whether he should be leather-flinger.......
Anyway, I think the Aussie selectors are starting to be more cautious with selecting him. He'll have to hit some serious runs and take consistent wickets to be considered for a Test all-rounder's spot from now on I reckon.
Phil Jaques isn't technically correct, but he's scoring runs at the highest level and displays mental toughness. Two attributes Watson doesn't have.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
Trolly troll troll troll? Troll, trolly troll-troll, IMO.
Johnners
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Pretty sure Watto has scored his fair share of runs in ODI cricket, but I guess you'll find some excuse about how they don't count etc. etc.
Mightn't hurt for you take take a look at his 06/07 ODI record as well,
22 494 79 38.00 0 5 25 4/43 29.56 0 3 0
What more could you ask of him? Unless you expected him to belt a century from 30 odd balls, take 5-1 from a short 3 over burst, and run 3 other blokes out with direct hits from the ****ing grandstands you couldn't have asked for more from him.
The only way you can compare Jaques with Watto is on their FC batting records, and whilst Jaques has an obviously superior record (and so he should have, being the specialist batsmen). But for an Allrounder to average 47, well that's pretty ****ing good in my books, especialliy when Watson also takes his wickets at 30 runs a piece and has a sr of 50.
Can't fathom the whole mental toughness argument either, yeah Watson shows his emotions, but who gives a ****. He gives his all on the field, and is obviously desperate to get out on the playing field given the fact that he has on 2 or 3 occasions come back far to early from injury.
Johnners
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
CHBA
Makes that bloke from the 3 billy goats story look nothing short of angelic for mine.
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
With all due respect, aren't you the one who said you didn't enjoy watching Tendulkar bat? Not many play as technically correct a drive and cut as Sachin.
Its all subjective really. As a person, I can't stand Watson, but I would sit and watch him make a ton because of his attractive style.
I can understand why someone may not like watching Watto bat, though I'd find it odd. I'm sure Hayden lovers wonder why some, like myself, don't enjoy watching him bat too.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
I'm not sure what it is about Tendulkar that doesn't attract me to him as an offside player. I must admit, I really do enjoy watching him play through the legside, such beautiful skill with his wrists. Could place it between 7 fieldsmen blindfolded off his pads.
His offside play, despite it's correctness, always comes across as ugly to me. Maybe it's because his bat is so huge and it almost looks as if the bat is batting with him, instead of the other way around.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Ah, gotta laugh.
roseboy64
Cricket Web Content Updater
Gladly.You can have him. Qld tried to give him to NSW and they rejected him.
He should earn his position. Now he's bowled two overs for Queensland and avoided getting four ducks in a row he'll get his International recall.
Mental toughness. When the chips are down he struggles to bounce back and he breaks down too easily. His pain threshold is extremely low. Players like Border, Boon, Taylor, the Waugh's, Healy and McGrath have extremely great durability and either played through pain or managed to miss very few games or both.
Even someone like Merv Hughes bowled himself through complete pain and Dean Jones batted as if his life depended on it during the Tied Test. Watson could never do any of those and takes the easy way out.
People would like Watson if he earned his position. He hasn't done that in recent times. He really needs to produce the goods for Queensland and more than just 1-2 games.
He may have a technically correct defensive shot and drive, but is he attractive to watch?
I guess us Aussies have been spoilt by the greatness of Ricky Ponting & Steve Waugh, the elegance of Mark Waugh, the aggression of Adam Gilchrist & Andrew Symonds, the brut intimidation of Matthew Hayden and the daring nature of Michael Slater. Not to mention Michael Bevan's feats in ODI's for Australia.
Shane Watson hasn't looked the part in his three Tests thus far. Some say that's too short, but you at least show something in three Tests. Watson has been out of his depth in three very easy victories.
Johnners
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
He won't be this time, and has never previously slotted direclty into the test team without having shown good leadup form (and only then he's basically relied on retirements or other batsmen being dropped due to poor form before selection)
As for the OD team, if you're going to try and tell me that he doesn't deserve his spot there, well that would be nothing short of being Ignorant.
As for the OD team, if you're going to try and tell me that he doesn't deserve his spot there, well that would be nothing short of being Ignorant.
vic_orthdox
Global Moderator
I think it is arguable that Hopes could perform the no. 7 role as well as Watson could.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
If they're almost exactly comparable but Watson has a far superior record, I don't see what the problem is.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Watson's obviously the better allround batsman but his batting isn't particularly suited to #7. To his credit, he really did a lot to fix that up as we saw in the WC when he averaged something ridiculous at an equally ridiculous strike rate, but I think he'd be less effective there when not in top form or when still just coming back from injury (as he is ever-so-often). Hopes's batting, in comparison, is well-suited to batting down the order and he doesn't take long to get himself set.
I'm a huge fan as Watson and I'd obviously rather see him in there than Hopes, but I could certainly see a valid argument for picking Hopes within the context of the Australian side ATM.