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Vice-captain Shane Watson had better prepare himself for a crash course in captaincy starting today. The Australians fly out to the West Indies tomorrow for a five-ODI, two-Twenty20, three-Test schedule, with a huge question mark over incumbent captain Michael Clarke’s availability.
Clarke has already missed four matches out of six in the last three weeks, and most likely will miss today’s finals decider against Sri Lanka in Adelaide with his back related hamstring problems.
Former skipper Ricky Ponting filled in for the ODIs against Sri Lanka at the SCG and India at the Gabba, his last two appearances as an Australian ODI player before he was dropped; Watson for the India-Sri Lanka games at the SCG and MCG.
Sri Lanka won both those games by 8 wickets and 9 runs; Australia won both against India by 110 and 87.
As Sri Lanka has won four of the six games against Australia in this series, there will be a temptation to play Clarke today, no matter the consequences.
There’s no argument Clarke is important to the side, but that would be insanity.
My medical mail is surgery as the only avenue to correct the problem, and that means at least two months rehab.
But it appears the skipper is more intent on playing a form of Russian roulette with his hamstrings.
So it would be far more prudent to cut the mustard now and appoint Watson captain of all formats starting today and on-going through the Caribbean.
If by some miracle Clarke can make it later, so be it – a big bonus.
But in the interim, let’s have stability at the top. And there’s no more important role than the captain. Three captains in six matches is hardly stable.
How ironic is it that Watson, who was incessantly injury-prone early in his career and has overcome a recent calf injury that cost him three months off duty, is poised to take over from an injury-prone skipper.
And Watson will do a good job.
He’s only tossed the international coin twice, but he has a sharp cricket brain, he’s both positive and aggressive, and there’s no doubting his skills as an all-rounder.
It’s how he paces himself from here on in that means so much to his team.
Heaven forbid if he breaks down again and the selectors are forced to find an overnight captaincy replacement on tour.
Which makes it vital the selectors don’t appoint an official vice-captain for the West Indies.
Tradition has it in Australian cricket the v-c is always the next captain. No questions asked.
Selectors broke with tradition when they named Ponting as captain over v-c David Warner for the first game Clarke missed in this series.
That was the exception to the “rule”. It’s extremely doubtful that will ever happen again.
So leave the options open with no v-c, especially as the captaincy candidates after Watson are thin on the ground.