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“As long as he’s bowling overs and he’s fit, we would love to have that extra bowler”
Australia head coach Darren Lehmann has revealed that all-rounder Shane Watson is likely to replace either Alex Doolan or Shaun Marsh, if he is fully fit prior to the start of the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town on March 1.
Watson has missed the first two Tests due to a calf injury that left him struggling to bat, bowl and run.
But, despite having regained his touch with the bat and the ability to run properly again, Lehmann noted that Watson will only be picked if he can bowl without any problems whatsoever.
“As long as he’s bowling overs and he’s fit, we would love to have that extra bowler,” Lehmann said. “We’ll have to wait and see how that comes along. He seems all right, batting doesn’t seem an issue. Hopefully he’ll be able to bowl.
“At the end of the day, if we have to fit Shane Watson in and someone misses out, it will be really unlucky. It depends on whether we need the fifth bowler or we don’t, and we’ll have to wait until we see the wicket. And he’s got to be fully fit. All those things come into it.”
Lehmann also hinted that the pace duo of Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris may be forced to make way for James Pattinson and Jackson Bird after the pair showed signs of fatigue during the second Test.
“We’ll have a look at it, velocity’s a big thing for us,” Lehmann said. “You certainly need pace, we’ve seen that with Johnson, Harris and Siddle when he’s up and running he’s bowling 135kph plus, so we’ll have a look at that over the next few days, we’ll see how they pull up.
“It’ll be conditions and what we think is going to get us 20 wickets. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the side to do that, because if you can’t get 20 you can’t win the Test match. And I hate draws. We don’t seem to play draws anyway so that’s alright.”
While Lehmann wasn’t pleased about Australia’s dramatic batting collapse on the final day of the second Test, he stated that it was less painful to watch compared to that of the fourth Ashes Test against England in Durham last year.
“It did take me back, what did we lose, 9 for 64 working from when we were 1-152? We weren’t in a bad spot then,” Lehmann said. “The pleasing thing for me is that we got bowled out, if that makes sense.
“They bowled very well and we didn’t cope with it well enough so we have to improve in that area, but with their high-class bowling attack, full credit to them. In Durham we played some bad shots to lose those wickets, the disappointing thing was our first innings runs, we harp on it all the time but we have to get better in the first innings. I wasn’t pleased to be bowled out, in the manner we got out we got bowled out, in Durham we played some poor shots but they were too good for us here.”
Lehmann added that he would speak to the batsmen about combating reverse swing prior to the start of the third Test and use the patience of Chris Rogers and David Warner as an example of how to beat the South African pace attack at their own game.
“It was our first innings batting,” he said. “We didn’t bat long enough or well enough, that’s as simple as it gets. We weren’t patient enough with our batting.
“If we had that patience [of Rogers and Warner] we would have made 350, 400 in the first innings and those deliveries wouldn’t have got you out in the first innings because the ball wasn’t reverse swinging like that. That’s just a part of the great game we play. We need to talk about it because we need to keep learning how to play the game. We need to keep improving.”
Meanwhile, Australia captain Michael Clarke stated that his team will look to bounce back, just like South Africa did after they lost the first Test, when they square off against the Proteas once again in Cape Town.
“Probably the same way South Africa got over it after Centurion,” he said. “I said last time we were here I wished there was a third Test match being 1-1, so now we’ve got that challenge.
“Cape Town is a magnificent place to play cricket. Generally when the sun’s out, it’s a good wicket, and when it’s overcast there’s a lot of hard work to be done for the batters. So it’s going to be a challenge no doubt about it, but it’s exciting. What we’re seeing now is two teams pushing extremely hard to have success, we’re trying to challenge the No. 1 team in the world in their own backyard. So we know how difficult that is and we’re excited by the challenge.”