A lot has changed since I last played against India: Shane Watson – Cricket News Update
Stand-in skipper for the Australian team, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the 10th match of the ongoing Commonwealth Bank series on February 26, but admits that a lot has changed since he last
played against the Asian giants.
Watson was filling in for skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 at Hobart), and making a return to the team after a prolonged process of recovery from a calf muscle strain.
He commented on how the situation had reversed since he last played against India, in the quarter-final of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Cricket World Cup last year, on March 24 at Ahmedabad, where the Aussies were knocked out of the mega event, after a 5-wicket defeat.
“...a lot has passed since then, especially during the Test series; you could see that watching it from afar. Things do change, times do change and playing at home as well is a big advantage,” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 observed.
Prior to the ongoing triangular series, two teams had faced off in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a series of 4 Test matches, in which the Men in Blue were whitewashed by the host team. The visitors have also failed to improve in the ongoing tri-series, winning
just 2 out of the 7 matches they have played so far, and are currently at the bottom of the series table, with 10 points.
Their recent performances are a far cry from last year’s World Cup triumph, as observed by the star Aussie all-rounder.
“Definitely [confidence levels are] very different,” Watson commented, adding that players like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/V-Sehwag-c2739 had been pretty big, consistent scorers when the team had been at their peak.
The Indian squad has also been undergoing a rough patch off the field as well – owing to a controversial rotation policy, where rumors of a rift have taken centre stage and understandably, has led them disjointed. The policy has received plenty of negative
criticism, and Watson views it as a major cause of their recent downslide.
“So for a few of those big guns to miss out pretty consistently through this whole summer is something you don't really see with this Indian team because normally one or two of those guys are getting big scores in the majority of the games," he said, adding
that the exclusion of the top three had proved to be the visitors' undoing.
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