Is This Finally The End?

Is it really the end? After all these years of mocking and taunting and anger and disbelief, and every other emotion one could describe... is this really the end?!

The boom fell mockingly during the World Cup when Shane Watson was dropped for Australia's match against Afghanistan in Perth when Rod Marsh was on duty, and no doubt after the selectors read my open letter that I sent to them. However, for the very next game, he had re-emerged thanks to Mark Waugh's take on the all-rounder position in the team, and despite getting worked over by Wahab Riaz in Adelaide in the quarter final (and if he had been held at fine leg early in that innings... well... maybe he would still not be here...) he remained in the team that eventually won the title. So his being dropped was a false dawn, and once again he was a part of the furniture. His returns in the two Tests in the West Indies were average, and despite being outplayed by Mitch Marsh in the two warm up games in England, he was chosen for the 1st Test which was completed in Cardiff last week.

So what has changed in a week? Watson's output in that 1st Test - 30 in the first innings (out LBW, referred, upheld, lose a referral) and 19 in the second innings (out LBW, referred, upheld, lose a referral) and 13 wicketless and impenetrative overs - is pretty much what he has dished up for the past two years, and apart from a few rare moments, for the most part of the past five years. This isn't a new phenomenon. In my angriest moments I have written about it in this blog here and here and here and here and here... and so on... and then there are the other fifty times where I just explode on social media. In essence, he put up the same figures last week as he has done for years, and now, almost suddenly, the selectors finally decide to drop him. It all makes perfect sense, because we've all thought it should have happened any number of times, but it also makes no sense at all. Why now? Why not in the West Indies? Why not against India at home, after he'd missed the Pakistan series with injury and Mitch Marsh had made such a good start there? Why not against South Africa? On and on, the opportunity to drop Watson has been available, on similar evidence. Why do it now, when not only has Australia lost the 1st Test when only Chris Rogers could have said to have succeeded well with the bat, but the team has lost the experience of Brad Haddin for the 2nd Test for family reasons? I'll be honest, as soon as Haddin's announcement was made, there didn't seem to be any way the selectors would lose any more 'experience', one of the final planks of Watson's resume that was often used as a reason NOT to drop him in the past.

The truth of the matter is that the Australians must believe that the English have Watson's number. They target that front pad, and are successful. They are not threatened by his bowling, and simply milk him around the field without any trouble. He can't field anywhere except first slip, and he is often saved there by Haddin's diving or Clarke's diving. Mitch Marsh may not do any better with either the bat or ball than Watson has in recent times, but the feeling is he certainly won't do worse. His form with the bat shows hope that he can succeed where Watson has not, and that his bowling is only there to hold up an end to give the four front liners a rest. If he takes wickets it's a bonus. He is also young in an exceptionally old team, and he will be enthusiastic. The reasons for keeping Watson in the team in front of anyone had grow tired and old and almost nonsensical. There was simply no reasons left, no matter how trivial, to keep him.

Is it really the end? Never say never. Losses at Lords and/or Edgbaston will open the door slightly for him, especially if Voges or Marsh cannot put a score on the board. Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers have been supposedly killed so many times they should be shredded mince meat, and yet they keep coming back and coming back. Shane Watson may not be a fictional movie villain, he may not have a mask, and he may wield willow rather than a cleaver, but I'll believe it's over when he announces he is joining Kevin Pietersen on his world tour of T20 domestic tournaments. Maybe then, and only then, we can rest easy.