Shane Watson – No place to hide anymore

Tough times

If technical inaccuracies are taken into account, there are plenty of things that Watson needs to do. For starters, his front foot has been troubling him – it’s almost like he has no control over it, and his foot has to go and plant itself right in the middle of the pitch, begging to be struck by the ball. A slight change in stance might reduce his compulsive requirement to go right across the stumps – taking guard outside leg stump, shuffling a bit, and opening up his shoulders to a very slight extent may give him a realistic chance of dealing with his lbw problems.

However, none of those solutions can be implemented overnight. It takes a batsman years to mould himself to bat in a particular manner – and when those methods need to be changed, it demands a paradigm shift in mental approach. Slowly and steadily, Watson needs to consciously incorporate those improvements into his style of batting. Meanwhile, he needs to go into every innings being fully aware of his lbw issues, without obsessing over it, or letting it consume him.

After all, Watson isn’t the only batsman in the world plagued by the intricacies of technical problems. More than sorting his technique, Watson needs to regain his confidence. He needs his arrogance back; he needs his swagger back. A self-assured Shane Watson would be a much more dangerous opponent than a technically correct Shane Watson. After all, those technical issues still existed even in his good old heydays, when runs were flowing off his blade and confidence was oozing out of every pore of his skin.

Sometimes, just one good innings makes a world of difference. Just that one near-perfect knock, where he middles every ball and finds every gap, may transform his currently tragic tale and lift his dramatically dropping stocks. Watson urgently needs to find that one innings where he converts his start into a big score – he has to play that one innings that gives him the feeling that he is making a significant contribution, and isn’t in the team due to the sheer weight of his own reputation.

Though he may not admit it, Watson must be sensing the pressure. While Clarke and Lehmann may insist that his place is not under the scanner, the fact of the matter is that Watson is hanging on by the weakest of threads, and would certainly have not found a place in the Australian line-up in any other era.

Arguably, what is keeping Watson in the team is his bowling – and though there are no jaw-dropping, breath-taking statistics to speak of, he provides Michael Clarke with an additional option. While his strike rate of 66.2 would be classified as strictly modest by even the most lenient of his fans, he does have a good economy rate of 2.80 and is often able to efficiently block one end up, strangle the batsmen for room, and force them into playing rash shots against other bowlers, due to the frustration of not getting any scoring opportunities off him.

However, Shane Watson is in the team as a genuine all-rounder. His achievements with the ball cannot make up for his batting disasters much longer – it is high time his bat does some talking. On his day, Shane Watson can be more destructive than most other batsmen in the world – he can hypnotise the opposition into a state of complete mental disorientation. He needs to discover some source of inspiration – he needs to find some way to convert normal days into his days.

It may need tremendous amounts of focus and determination, and might take time – and there lies the problem. Time is running out for Shane Watson.