AUSTRALIA’S cricketers departed for the West Indies with two abiding sensations. One was weariness, after a seemingly endless summer that will now have a Caribbean postscript. The other, more significantly, was optimism following a season in which a new team was forged, benefiting from new leadership, youthful selections, improved support staff, fresh ideas and renewed purpose.
Leading them for the ODI portion of the Caribbean trip is Shane Watson, the all-rounder fresher for the task than many team-mates due to the hamstring and calf injuries that kept him out of six home Test matches.
Michael Clarke’s absence until the Tests due to back-related hamstring trouble is a measure of how draining the summer has been for the full-time leader’s body, and Watson said he was ready to bear a greater share of the leadership and performance load on tour.
“I am very fresh after missing the majority of the summer so I am very excited to be able to go and continue to play a lot more cricket,” Watson said at Sydney Airport. “I have got through (the ODIs) and that is the most important thing.
“A couple of months ago it probably seemed a long way off to be able to get through playing a few games back-to-back, I got through well and while I haven’t been able to get the runs I wanted, it has been nice to be able to contribute as much as I have with the ball.”
The team Watson takes with him is vastly different from the one he left when injured in South Africa. Skills are tighter, plans better defined, relationships are more comfortable and confidence more robust. Watson noted the greater prevalence of centuries across the summer, in both Tests and ODIs – a trend he wishes to add to with his own contributions.
“Little thing skills wise (have changed), seeing from afar how guys were able to turn even fifties into hundreds and really big hundreds that was something we hadn’t been able to do previously, not consistently anyway. Even through the one-dayers there were quite a few hundreds,” Watson said. “The catching improved and that is something we have been talking about as a group.
“Also our bowling, our skills, you could just see our skills improved. Peter Siddle bowled extremely well through the Test series and that really does come down to the guys putting in the hard work; but most importantly the coaches who are around our group have been challenging us in a good way.
“I have seen even from afar how much some of the guys have improved having Craig McDermott there and we have seen the bowlers continue to improve and it is exciting to know that the right coaching and the right resources have been able to get the best out of our players.”
Then there is the depth created by the emergence of players like Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson and latterly Peter Forrest. Another fresher face in the squad is that of George Bailey, who has been elevated to the Twenty20 captaincy on the strength of his leadership with Tasmania, but now has the chance to pursue middle-order batting posts in the longer forms.
“It’s a very exciting time in Australian cricket,” Watson said. “To think even 12 months ago that things were being said that the depth in Australian cricket might not be that good, to actually see the guys who are coming through, Pat Cummins for example.
“To see guys like that actually able to come into the team and perform straightaway is an amazing thing because I know how hard it is stepping up to international cricket as a young guy.
“James Pattinson has been brilliant, Nathan Lyon … to see these guys come in and perform straightaway is a very exciting thing. To actually know that we’ve got some great depth now and in the future with a few other guys still on their way back from injury and also some guys who will continue to improve in domestic cricket to put pressure on the more senior guys.”
Watson said he expected Pattinson to miss at least the first two ODIs as he recovers from a buttock strain, before resuming in the latter part of the series. The first match against the West Indies will take place on March 16. (ESPN Cricinfo)