Time for batsmen to fire, says Watson

Shane Watson says it is time for Australia’s under-fire batting lineup to stop talking and start delivering in Wednesday’s one-dayer against England at The Oval.

The world No.1 side’s batsmen have struggled against the English bowlers in the opening three matches with the home side marching to an unbeatable 3-0 series lead.

Watson, Australia’s leading runscorer in the series, said there had been plenty of internal discussions regarding the side’s lack of runs before the south London clash starting at 1pm (2200 AEST).

“We’ve talked about it a lot, the things we really need to do, and hopefully we can bring it all together in the next couple of games,” he said.

Watson said the batsmen had been letting down the national team with Australia’s inexperienced bowling attack putting up a decent fight in England.

“Throughout this series so far, we just haven’t scored enough runs to give ourselves a chance of being able to restrict the English,” he said.

“That’s definitely been the biggest disappointment.”

He admitted that bad memories from Australia’s agonising loss in last year’s Ashes title decider at The Oval had come flooding back in his return to the venue on Tuesday.

“It’s not great, to be fair,” he said.

“It wasn’t our greatest game this time last year.

“It’s not the greatest memories to be a part of.”

England have not defeated Australia in four straight one-day matches since 1997.

The home side is set to be unchanged for the fourth straight match with young quick Josh Hazlewood an outside chance of playing if Australia think there is enough bounce in the deck.