“At the end of the day the tour matches are here for us to adjust to the conditions as well as we can and get some time in the middle. It's certainly better than training,” he said.
The tour match against the West Indies Cricket Board President's XI, being played from April 2-4 at the Three Ws Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, saw the Aussies visibly struggling on the dry pitch. Batsmen Ed Cowan and Ricky Ponting, after a successful domestic season with Tasmania, were particularly disappointing, giving their wickets away without much of a fight in the first innings, contributing 12 and 13 runs respectively.
“I think it's just a good challenge for the quicks and the spinners for us to be able to find ways to bat for long periods of time,” Watson insisted.
In comparison to the batsmen, the bowlers were more successful. Ryan Harris and Michel Beer dominated the Windies’ first innings, with both claiming 4 scalps each. Ben Hilfenhaus and Nathan Lyon followed that up with a spectacular show the second time around, with the former claiming 4 for 8, while the later contributed 4 for 17.
“I think we showed this [Australian] summer in the Test matches especially, how much in control we were in the majority of games,” Watson said. “… we'll make sure the things we didn't do right during the one-dayers (in the West Indies) we'll nail during these Tests.”
The Aussies’ last Test was the Border-Gavaskar Test series against India in late 2011/early 2012, which they went on to sweep 4-0. After securing a win in the Commonwealth Banks series against India and Sri Lanka, the Aussies went into the tour of the Windies with high spirits, but were unable to make much of an impression in the limited-overs fixtures, with both the ODIs and T20Is ending on a draw.
The visitors have a last chance to secure a series win in the upcoming extended overs series, due to begin at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados on April 7.
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