England on Top

The value of good opening batsmen is perhaps known to Australia. But playing Watson and Katich demonstrates a woeful lack of decent openers in Australian cricket today. Watson is in the team more because of the strong desire to have him in the team, rather than conviction that he belongs in it. Watson is a good cricketer, but he is a decent alrounder and poor opener. If anything, he should replace Marcus North in the order and Australia should bring in a genuine batsman in his place.

Watson continues teethering between Mudassar Nazar and Manoj Prabhakar as "role models". Mudassar though was a classic opener. Dogged and unspectacular. His bowling was an asset to his team as a change option. Prabhakar was a opening bowler and batsman until Srinath sealed his spot on the team. So Prabakar was a better bowler than Watson and Mudassar was a better batsman than Watson. By better I mean more useful to the team.

I'm a fan of Watson, so I think he belongs in the team as an allrounder. So there, a non-Greg Chappellian, from the heart opinion. England have backed up their bravado in the first test with another salvo on the opening day here. It's amazing that Australia and England have virtually the same batsmen from four years ago. It's the bowling attacks that are different and how!!! We know what happened the last time England were in Australia.