Watson to replace Watson for Australia

Shane Watson has been a long standing contributor to the Australian Cricket Team. He has played 56 test matches and 186 One Day Internationals for Australia. Yet many cricket fans are calling for the cricket veteran to get the sack at the age of 33.

Most of the validation for dropping Shane Watson has come from his batting performances – a combination of his test form with lack of test hundreds, low conversion rate, ‘poor’ average of 35.51 and his One Day International (ODI) form hitting two scores above 50 in his last 10 innings.

It is true that the last test series and the current cricket world cup hasn’t been Watson’s finest as a cricketer, the statistics below show his recent form in One Day Matches.

LAST 10 BATTING INNINGS:

1. 16 against England. 16 Jan 2015 – batting 3
2. 41 against India. 18 Jan 2015 – batting 3
3. 22 against India. 8 Feb 2015 – batting 3
4. 34 against U.A.E. 11 Feb 2015 – batting 3
5. 0 against England. 14 Feb 2015 – batting 3
6. 23 against New Zealand. 28 Feb 2015 – batting 3
7. 67 against Sri Lanka. 8 Mar 2015 – batting 6
8. 24 against Scotland. 14 Mar 2015 – batting 3
9. 64* against Pakistan. 20 Mar 2015 – batting 5
10. 28 against India. 26 Mar 2015 – batting 5

BATTING AVERAGE LAST 10 = 19.93

LAST 10 BOWLING INNINGS:

1. 0/23 against England. 16 Jan 2015 – 4 overs. Economy of 5.75
2. 0/33 against India. 18 Jan 2015 – 8 overs. Economy of 4.12
3. 0/21 against India. 8 Feb 2015 – 3 overs. Economy of 7.00
4. 1/8 against U.A.E. 11 Feb 2015 – 4 overs. Economy of 2.00
5. 0/13 against England. 14 Feb 2015 – 3 overs. Economy of 4.33
6. Didn’t bowl against New Zealand. 28 Feb 2015
7. 1/71 against Sri Lanka. 8 Mar 2015 – 7 overs. Economy of 10.14
8. 1/18 against Scotland. 14 Mar 2015 – 3 overs. Economy of 6.00
9. 0/17 against Pakistan. 20 Mar 2015 – 5 overs. Economy of 3.14
10. 0/29 against India. 26 Mar 2015 – 4 overs. Economy of 7.25

BOWLING AVERAGE LAST 10 = 77.67

Yet these stats and judging him based only on his batting entirely misses the point of why Watson is always in the selectors plans, and why he is held in such high regard. He’s an all-rounder. Now, I am guilty of being one of the chief supporters of the Anti-Shane Watson group, but looking at the numbers he’s actually quite a good all-rounder.

In Test Cricket he averages 35.74 batting and bowling he averages 33.09.

To compare, look below at the following names and their respective averages with both batting and bowling in Test Match cricket.

• Jacques Kallis: 55.37 and 32.65
• Keith Miller: 36.97 and 22.97
• Tony Greig 40.43 and 32.20
• Andrew Flintoff: 31.77 and 32.78
• Richard Hadlee: 27.16 and 22.29
• Garfield Sobers: 57.78 and 34.03
• Imran Khan: 37.69 and 22.81
• Kapil Dev: 31.05 and 29.64
• Ian Botham: 33.54 and 28.40

Just by taking a slight glance across the names and their figures would show that Watson’s career numbers hold up against a list of the most highly regarded Test all-rounders of all time.

If the basis of all the talk and scrutiny was purely for this world cup, then it is another matter and a different conversation altogether.

Even if you don’t believe in the statistics and still believe that Shane Watson should be dropped, then who will Australia pick in his absence?

There have been many calls over the past months that he should be removed to allow a younger all-rounder such as Mitch Marsh, or James Faulkner to make their way into the test team. If you’re picking these two over Watson based on potential then I am all for it and would agree with that selection strategy. However, this decision would need to be recognised as Watson being dropped purely on the potential of the younger players.

Mitch Marsh has a batting average of 26.44 and a bowling average of 29.33 in 43 games of First-class cricket.

James Faulkner has a batting average of 31.91 and a bowling average of 24.06 in 45 games of First-class cricket.

Shane Watson has a batting average of 43.04 and a bowling average of 29.33 in 130 games of First-class cricket.

If Australia needs an all-rounder in their Test or One Day side, then Watson should get the go ahead, based on his experience, performance and results in First-class cricket. The calls for him to be dropped from the Australian side altogether due to how disappointing and frustrating he can be doesn’t quite hold up when compared to his entire career.

I’ve often heard the argument that he needs to be removed from the squad because “he is what he is” or that he needs to make room for a younger all-rounder. I don’t agree with these statements but now I do use “he is what he is”.

His average with the bat 35.74.

His average with the ball 33.09.

“He is what he is” and maybe Australia should be happily taking it, instead of intensely scrutinising it.

Statistics provided by ESPNcricinfo.

Story and images provided by Matthew Elder