Asked if he was in no doubt about playing in Brisbane, however, he replied: “I’d never say no doubt. But I’ve been able to get on top of this sort of thing over the last eight or nine months with a few niggles that I had even throughout the Ashes as well. So I’m very confident that things should work out okay and the results will be what I think they are and there shouldn’t be any problems.”
With the series locked at 2-2, Watson decided to bat in Bangalore, coming in at No8 despite having suffered the injury during India’s earlier innings.
“The situation of the game meant I needed to come out and try and give us a chance to win,” he said.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t able to bat at No3 to try and really give us a chance. But you want to do anything you can — it was a game to decide the series, certainly a big game for us. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.
“But in the end, I don’t think I injured myself too much more.”
Watson was Australia’s leading run scorer in last summer’s Ashes series, with 418. However, he had
a lean time in the early Tests, regularly falling leg before due to a technical fault, and was dropped down the order by the selectors.
He failed to record a 50 until the Fourth Test at Chester-le-Street but weighed in with 176 in the fifth and final Test at The Kia Oval.
Watson (left) has had limited time off over the last eight months, Australia’s schedule keeping him abroad for most of the year.
He said while international cricket was “not an ideal world”, he was happy to get as much cricket while fit.
“I’ve been fit for the last little while. In the end, any cricket is good cricket,” he added. “The cricket that was played over in India, especially for the batters it was a great challenge, for the bowlers it was a lot of hard work.
“We certainly aren’t underdone for cricket, For a majority of us we’ve been playing for quite a while, so there should be no excuses for us being rusty at all.”
