Watson itching for battle with Anderson
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Australia’s vice-captain Shane Watson is itching to resume his verbal battle with English niggler James Anderson in the upcoming one-day series.
The English swing bowler first started baiting Watson during the 2009 Ashes with their verbal sparring continuing during the last Ashes series in Australia 18 months ago.
After being in England’s team that was swept aside 5-0 in the 2006-07 Ashes series, Anderson has enjoyed success over the Australians in the past two series.
A big smile swept across Watson’s face when asked whether he was looking forward to locking horns with the talkative Lancastrian.
“That is always the enjoyable part of playing against England, high quality players and Jimmy especially,” he said.
“He is a world-class bowler and he has got a way of getting up people’s skin as well.
“That is the reason why you play cricket to play against those guys.
“We are all very excited about playing against Jimmy.
“It is a lot of fun and it really gets everything going.”
The Australians opted to not to train on Wednesday on the eve of Thursday’s one-day tour opener against Leicestershire at Grace Road.
Following the clash, Australia will head to Ireland for a one-day international in Belfast on Saturday.
The tourists play a final warm-up match against Essex on Tuesday before the one-day series against England starts on June 29 at Lord’s.
© AAP 2013
The Ashes journey begins
The Australian cricket team have left Australia to begin their tour of England, with a mission to reclaim the Ashes.
Australian captain Michael Clarke and his teammates were optimistic about their chances before jetting off.
Click here to hear the thoughts of our Australian cricket team as they left for England.
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The Crowd Says (4) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 21st 2012 @ 1:34pm
Cricket Burble said | June 21st 2012 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
It’s meant to rain for about a week solidly in the UK so I’m not sure they’ll get much warm up cricket in before the real thing…(well sort of – they’re only unimportant ODIs anyway, so not really sure they can be termed ‘the real thing’).
June 21st 2012 @ 3:31pm
swannies05 said | June 21st 2012 @ 3:31pm | Report comment
It may just be 5 ODI’s but it is against the Mother country. However ODI’s are viewed this day, a series win on their soil can only be a step in the right direction before we embark on reclaiming the urn next year.
June 21st 2012 @ 11:56pm
Bayman said | June 21st 2012 @ 11:56pm | Report comment
If only Watto was interested in scoring runs against Anderson…..rather than points!!
June 24th 2012 @ 4:36pm
Disco said | June 24th 2012 @ 4:36pm | Report comment
Watson also said it was important no to get “spooked” by facing Anderson which I thought was amusing in the light of the Cardiff hotel episode in ’05.