...Replace Watson at #3?
The problem was that Watson's best results were as an opener. Then suddenly we had Rogers and Warner too and we had three openers and that just doesn't work. I don't think he is a number three - however he still makes vital contributions. In Melbourne, for example, he came out when we were 1/0 and knuckled down to build an innings-stabilising partnership with Rogers and save our bacon. Yes, he didn't make a hundred - but the 60-odd runs he did make in that innings were so crucial. I felt so bad for him when he got out in the 80s in Sydney. He worked so hard for that hundred. His bowling is also an extremely important contribution. He may not be the fastest bowler around, but he generally bowls a very tight line and length that opposition batsmen struggle with, can control reverse swing when he finds it, and always chips in with a few important wickets. He's a pretty handy slipper too, and a safe pair of hands there. The problem is that hating on Watson has become a national sport, and nothing he does will ever be good enough any more. Heck, there were people complaining as he made those runs in Sydney "Oh here he goes, only making runs in the unimportant tests". And yet if he'd got a duck those same people would be calling for his head. No-one's calling for Chris Rogers to be sacked even though he failed to convert any of his six fifties to hundreds this summer. The other problem is that the more he struggles, the more people dump on him, the more he dumps on himself as a result of people dumping on him, so the harder he fights for runs, so the more he struggles. If people would just lay off him a bit, he'd be able to work himself back into form without the pressure of nearly 20 million haters.