Why I'm sceptical about Shane Watson as captain

Watson is the best all rounder in the world at the moment, he is dangerous at all forms of the games thats why hes vice-captian* and he can keep the economy rate down with his bowling and be as destructive with the bat, hes the t20 king and a superb test and odi player he is strong and has power no one has better foot technique than shane watson, do you see any player in the world getting there front foot down on the knees when that play a straight drive no, not even sachin tendulkar, hes a line and length bowler not a pace bowler wicket to wicket bowler & a destroying batsman and a defensive batsman.....

Clarke seems certain he'll play but a player like Watto captaining is not without precedent. Ian Johnson, never quite dominant with the ball and solid with the bat, was captain during the mid 50s when Australia were at the end of the successful post war period. Never popular, apparently on the West Indies tour he was selector and fellow selectors, including Keith Miller was hopeful he'd drop himself. No such luck.

What's Watson's bowling average over that period sittingbison. I'd imagine it's actually pretty good...

I think the clear issue here, is that there basically is no clear successor to Clarke (in the long term) in the Australian ranks at the moment. Mr. C is a legend and is the obvious choice in the short, but the seemingly evergreen Hussey (a rare thing) will wilt in the next year or two, and no amount of tears from Australian cricket fans will bring him back. Who does that leave us? Watson, the next most experienced after Huss, is not only made of glass, but the same age as Clarke, who will surely endure longer anyway. Siddle is the only experienced bowler with any of his muscles left, and as inspiring as he is, I don't see him as captain. Cowan is struggling with an axe over his neck. Wade is no where near settled, and with Paine breathing down his neck, might not be as long term as some think. Who's left? Hughes needs another year to really solidify his place. Warner? Well lets just say, at the moment the way he plays doesn't suggest strong tactically sound captaincy to me. Basically, there's no one in the side at the moment who could fill Clarke's well run boots for the future. All I can say is when we do find a possibility, boot Watson as VC.

Just as well you are a finer connoisseur of cricket than I Punter, because I know nothing about Wattos career and had no idea scoring 528 runs at 25 over 11 tests in two full years was "a tad out of touch". Lets have a closer look at his batting from his past 12 tests going back to the 2010 Boxing Day test: 5 54 45 38 22 0 36 8 21 3 4 88 0 39 52 56 0 41 5 10 25 30 - thats 22 innings with four 50s at an average of 25. Yup, contributing with the bat no doubt about it. hmmmm...seeing as I have two hours before the apocalypse, here are his bowling figures for the same 12 tests, just to show his handy contributions as the all rounder: 34/0 49/1 11/3 19/2 17/0 43/1 54/1 17/5 44/0 13/1 46/1 30/1 14/0 15/0 12/0 20/1 22/1 24/0 55/1 54/1 - thats 20 innings for 20 wickets with one Michelle. Yup definitely contributing with the ball at an average of one wicket per innings, and 7/20 innings without a wicket. Just as well he got the Michelle in that Cape Town debacle eh old chap. Unpleasant reading without it So over two full years in 12 tests he has clearly contributed with bat and ball. Phew thats a relief, there was silly old moi thinking he has contributed precisely diddly squat. But what would I know, Gilly Warnie and Boof think he's a top bloke, they played with him back in 2006 in one dayers. And there was also silly me thinking Watto was an immature petulant egotistical primma donna after his very public on field demeanor and pressers where he can only talk about himself - did you see the one "I don't want to play 4 it doesn't suit me - I'm struggling to come to terms with batting 4" after Punter retired? Well I'm off to watch Glee, followed by "On the Beach". Catch you after the Boxing Day Test when all will be revelaed

I agree with Punter, Watto is clearly in the best 6 bats in the country. I also have faith in those in the inner circle of NSP (which Clarke is on) to know what they are talking about when appointing him VC, and then giving him the nob to stand in for Pup. All of us sitting in our arm chairs eating Barbeque Samboys and drinking Green Cordial wouldn't really know.

I suspect that Watson isn't that bright either. Something about his face says 'doh' to me.

Mark Waugh is definitely better placed than you or I, however I see no reference to his thoughts on Watto being a fill in test skipper- and if you refer to my first comment I noted he was a touch out of form at the moment, youre not really kicking goals here are you?

HOLD THE PRESS: "...FORMER Test star Mark Waugh says Shane Watson is hopelessly out of form with the bat as pressure builds on Michael Clarke to leapfrog the allrounder in Australia's newly-constructed batting order. Installed as Ricky Ponting's successor in the crucial No.4 slot, Watson's batting struggles are reaching worrying levels after he suffered twin failures of 30 and 5 in Australia's first-Test defeat of Sri Lanka in Hobart. He has now gone 32 Test innings without a century and has failed to post a Test ton since being elevated to the vice-captaincy following Ponting's resignation 20 months ago. Since the start of the 2011 calendar year, Watson has managed 528 runs with the bat from 11 Tests at an average of 25.14." Even though I have a poor understanding of his career, I trust Mark Waugh who is much better placed than I. Yes, lets ALL hope he scores a ton Punter, to go along with all his others.

Old boy, I never said he would be a great captain nor did I base his likely performance as captain on the fact he has played with Warnie or Glly- I merely pointed out that your comment was based on a poor understanding of his career and the capacity for Warnie, Gilly, Boof and Trev to judge the likelihood of him succeeding as a stand in test captain, more specifically I outlined that they are much better placed to assess that than you or I. Again your evidence is a tad light on 'mutterings and demeanour' are probably not acceptable in most academic references but I like your enthusiasm. I look forward to Watto performing well as a stand in captain and hopefully scoring a Boxing Day ton.

whats ESPN cricinfo? We shall have to agree to disagree Punter. You think he'll be a great captain because he played a few one dayers and T20 matches with Gilly and Warnie six years ago. I think he is an ego driven primma donna without the slightest shred of leadership ability or tactical acumen as evidenced by his mutterings and demeanor. Or I could have confused him with Lara Bingle. My bad. EDIT: "missed a few games" you mean the entire summer of Test cricket?

Punter captained the ODI side in pups absence initially because Watto was not playing (he's missed a few games because of injury in case you've missed that). Gilly and Boof played over 50 ODIs with him and Warnie captained him in 3 IPL series so I dare say they know his character and leadership potential pretty well. He was selected as VC in full knowledge that pup had a crook back and was likely to miss a match here and there which implies the NSP knew full well that Watto would captain the odd match just as Gilly did. I'm glad to see you've finally consulted ESPN cricinfo to back your argument, still a touch light on though old boy

Punter see above re: Watson captaining the one day side. And which bit of "before Watto started his ACTUAL test career" wasnt claer? You know, excluding the 3 tests in 2005 aged 23, and starting again after a 3 year absence in 2008 a year after all those luminaries had retired? Or are you seriously suggesting that Gilly and Warnie and Hohnsie could tell during those 3 tests for 4 innings and 81 runs that he was captain material? And thanks, I WAS busy watching Glee, then Lara Bingle then Shire. Gave me good grounding for the NSP.

not forgetting it GT, but stepping in for the injured captain during a one day series when you are the vice captain doesn't cut it. He has never been selected as the captain of any team ever. And lets not forget....Ricky Ponting was chosen to replace Clarke as Captain, instead of elevating Shane Watson. And given they then selected George Bailey from left field to captain the T20 team rather than again elevate Watson, I think that says it all really.

You seem to be a touch confused big fella, Both Warne and Gilchrist were playing when Watto made his test debut and Lehmann was the player he replaced and funnily enough Honns was chairmen of selectors at the time. I would say they are all pretty qualified to comment and based on the fact they are test cricketers probably a little bit better credentialed than you or I. As explained below Watto has actually captained ODIs in the last 12 months, you must have been busy at the time watching Glee or something similar. But please feel free to give some more hard hitting insights.

Actually that's a fair point - he has, but only after he became the Australian captain. Slightly different though - he came into the Australian team at a relatively young age and never had an opportunity to captain his state before he was called up for national duties. And he was anointed as future captaincy material very early in his career. I think Watson's elevation to the vice-captaincy role surprised everyone at the time - even his supporters.

True but didn't they make Ponting captain for the first two ODI's? Until he was axed obviously. I would have thought that if they really thought he was a good leader then they wouldn't have given it to Ponting initially That they picked George Bailey as T20 captain despite him not playing a T20 for Australia before, and despite a horrible BBL form last summer, when Watson was still in the side also suggests that they didn't rate Watson as a leader

Why is everyone forgetting that he captained the ODI side in Clarke's absence during the India-Sri Lanka tri series. If my memory serves me correct, he did alright.

He captained Australia to tri-series victory last summer if I remember correctly...

David Warner is as dumb as a doorknob. God (who I don't even believe in) help us if he's ever captain of Australia.