Geoff Lemon's Ashes Diary: Rogers gets home, but what to do with Watson?

Like Nemo, Otis, or whichever Milo didn’t drown in the waterfall scene, Chris Rogers has found his way home. Like a Depression-era grifter with a lazy eye, Shane Watson remains itinerant.

The two combined to rescue Australia’s chance of winning this Test and of drawing the series, as their 129-run partnership compensated for yet another batting collapse in which the rest of the top six mustered 26 runs between them.

Much like a Japanese kitten survival story, Rogers’ tale has taken many years to produce, involved a lot of unnecessary cruelty to its blameless ginger protagonist, and still managed to contrive a heartwarming end.

Batsmen are not supposed to break into Test sides at close to 36 years of age. Four matches on, Rogers has his first Test century.

It is the most implausible of late bloomings, but it should never have been so timed. For years it looked like Rogers’ ascent to international cricket would be a formality.

Season after season, in Australia and England, the workmanlike left-hander collected runs in the thousands and averages in the 70s. He racked up big centuries, won central contracts, and was seen to be the man in waiting.

For a moment 2006/07 looked like it: Rogers topped the Sheffield Shield runs list and was named State Player of the Year, while the same summer one of Australia’s great openers, Justin Langer, retired.

But the call never came.

“[I]t just felt like there was always one bloke in the way,” said Rogers after play today. “It was [Langer and Hayden], then it was Jacquesy, then it was Katich, and then it was Phil, and then Watto went and opened…”

Only once was Rogers asked to present for national duty, as short-term injury cover for Matthew Hayden in 2008. Like Mike Hussey on debut, he opened the batting, was nervous as hell, and made two low scores.

Unlike Huss, he wasn’t given another chance.

Imagine the loss to Australian cricket had Hussey been similarly dispensed with.

Perhaps because Rogers was an unassuming player, his season tallies became part of the landscape. His contract disappeared. Somehow he was simply regarded as someone who didn’t fit the bill.

Until now.

On this website’s Roar Radio commentary of the recent India tour, we betrayed our studio’s Melbourne locale by constantly and almost facetiously arguing for Rogers’ inclusion in the Ashes squad. The call was scorned by interstate listeners.

But with Australia’s batting stocks only thinning, and its frailty becoming endemic, Rogers’ stability took on a whole new appeal. Age was no longer a liability for the selectors. Patience prevailed.

Like few of their recent innovations, it was worked right away. Today’s century has been threatening since the start of the series. John Townsend noted that Rogers has improved his Test high score in six of his nine trips to the crease.

52 at Trent Bridge presaged 84 at Manchester, before flowering into the 101* compiled today.

It wasn’t pretty, it was always close, and Graeme Swann’s last spell gave Rogers the aspect of a man wearing sandpaper jocks. But like Tim Curry in a set of fishnets, it was beautifully ugly.

“After all this time, you just don’t think that this opportunity is going to come up, and you want to believe you’re good enough – I’ve wanted to believe I’m good enough, but never known.”

Rogers’ wistful statement could twinge even the hardest journalistic heart. After such a long exile, though, Rogers has not only been selected, but has finally made that Test opener’s spot his own.

The man with no place to call home, though, was Rogers’ companion. These days, it appears Shane Watson gets his place in the batting order by lining up at the deli and pulling a number.

Before the series, Darren Lehmann publicly stated that Watson was one of Australia’s openers, that he was their best option, that he preferred opening, and that he was being backed 100 percent.

That percentage lasted all of five innings, and suddenly Watson finds himself down at No. 6. Earlier this year he was being asked to become a No. 4.

No-one can decide where Watson belongs. He has bowled a lot this series, meaning batting him down the order gives him more rest. The Australian management is also dead keen on having David Warner open.

Warner, though, would make a more natural No. 6. He’s fast between the wickets, plays with urgency, and stays calm under pressure. He’s the sort of batsman who could marshal the tail, where Watson may become wooden with nerves.

It all worked out well today though. Whether or not he still wants to open the batting, Watson looked more comfortable at the crease than he has this tour, and his 68 was sorely needed.

The problem is, we’ve no idea if that will mean anything when it comes to the next team sheet. At this rate, Watson could be named captain or head chef or goalkeeper.

For now at least, after the longest wait, Chris Rogers knows exactly where he is, and where he should be. He’s found his way home.

Watson, unfortunately, is still out there in the wide world, just trying to find a place where he belongs, and wishing like hell he could just go and hang out with his ginger mate.

Watch all of Geoff Lemon’s video diaries.