'Lemming' Watson now enjoying, thriving in his role as Oz opener

Published>Sun, Sep 12 10 01:23 PM

Sydney, Sept.12 (ANI): All-rounder Shane Watson says that he now feels at home in his position as an Australian opening batsman, a place where Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Mark Taylor were once considered the cornerstones of the great Australian teams.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald before the tour to India, which he has defined as a cricketing "nirvana", Watson said: "I'm really enjoying ... really thriving ... on the opportunity to exert myself on the contest. You have nothing on your mind except setting up a successful innings. [As opener] you're setting up the team's situation, you're not coming out and worrying about the team's situation. It's a different mentality; you have no restrictions on your mindset about taking on the attack and getting the momentum going our way."

"Playing opener seems to really suit my technique, my personality and my game, and that's big surprise because I have always been a middle-order batsman," he adds.

The only bigger surprise, says Watson, is feeling as if he is finally fulfilling his potential after being sidelined by a series of cruel injuries, which included stress fractures in his back, strained hamstrings, calf and hip problems, and a dislocated shoulder.

He said of his potential-"I always thought if I had a crack at it, it'd be interesting to see where I could take my game."

And, last summer was "crucial" in his development, and public acceptance, as a Test player. It allowed him to package those "little glimpses" into something extraordinary. Now he has to back it up.

He knows that he will be tested during next month's Test series in India, but nothing will match the nerves of his first innings as an Australian opener in England when he had the commitment of a lemming who, despite the dire consequences, still marches off the cliff.

"I was as nervous as I'd ever been. I had no successful game plan behind me, and I didn't know what was going to work. I also don't think the people at the ground expected anything either because, to be brutally honest, I didn't expect much of me," Watson says.

Captain Ricky Ponting told him of his possible promotion before the third Test at Edgbaston over a cup of coffee.

Watson recalled that his heart definitely skipped a beat as he immediately recalled six miserable innings as Queensland's opener before he was banished down the order after averaging 4.67.

"Everyone expected me to fail because my previous experience as an opener was horrific," he said.

"The good thing though was I didn't feel any pressure at Edgbaston; none at all because there was none - I was in a foreign position and no one thought I'd do well," he adds.

Watson scored a respectable 62 in that opening innings, and backed it up with two more half centuries in the series Australia ultimately lost. His maiden century finally came last December after he fell painfully short on three previous occasions with two 90s and an 89. (ANI)

Source: Web Search