Bhubaneswar: Australian vice-captain Shane Watson described Mitchell Johnson as a “huge weapon” and said the fiery pacer provided an “X-factor” to their bowling attack against India in the bilateral series.
“It’s important to get our match-ups right when we’re bowling against their batsmen,” Watson told reporters at the team hotel here on Friday.
“I think we’ve matched up really well. Mitch Johnson provides a big X-factor for us. There’s a couple of guys who aren’t as comfortable against the short ball compared to some of their other players as well.
“I think the important thing for us has just been getting our match-ups right. Even batting wise when we’re facing certain bowlers that they’ve got. Also trying to take them on at certain stages of the game. I think we’ve done that really well so far,” he added.
With the Indian batsmen troubled by Johnson, the Aussies are happy to use the pacer against the middle-order batsmen and termed him as a huge weapon.
“It certainly has been (a tactic), there’s no doubt. Even after seeing what happened in the Twenty20 game in Rajkot, especially Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh)… we didn’t get our plans exactly right to him and he’s an extremely talented player.
“If we give him a chance to get away he certainly hits the ball very sweet. And also to Suresh Raina, he’s a high quality, world-class player as well. We’re very lucky to have Mitch in our team bowling the pace and control that he’s got at this point in time.
“It’s a huge weapon for us because we know how important their middle order is to their success. We’ve seen it work so far throughout this series. Hopefully it can continue to work for a bit longer. (But) we need to get to that stage. In Jaipur we didn’t get a chance to be able to get to that middle order because they batted so well. Apart from that game it has worked really well,” Watson added.
With Saturday’s match set to be called off, Watson said that the Aussies were happy to have a five-match series thanks to their 2-1 lead.
“It doesn’t look good at the moment, that’s for sure. We heard reports before we even arrived that there’d been a lot of rain and last night it certainly didn’t stop. I’d be very surprised if we got on tomorrow after seeing how wet the grounds were, even coming from the airport to this hotel. It’s not looking great,” he said.
“In the end, to get a five match series is normally a bit more enjoyable anyway. So the rains made it that way. It really makes the game in Nagpur extremely important to try and close out the series,” he added. (PTI)
