Adelaide: Australia might still be mourning the tragic loss of Phillip Hughes but all-rounder Shane Watson on Sunday said his team will be ready to dish out aggressive cricket and inflict pain on India when the opening Test gets underway here on Tuesday.
The 33-year-old allrounder said last week has been the most challenging phase for the team but he believed that his side will play with the same aggression as in the past and avenge their 0-4 loss to India last year.
“We’ve played our best cricket when we are aggressive. That’s ever since I’ve been involved in the Australian cricket team. We are aggressive with bat and ball, especially with the ball as we were during the last Ashes series. That’s not going to change because that’s when we’re at our absolute best,” Watson told reporters.
“We know what we have to do to do well against the Indians. They hammered us in their conditions so we have a lot to give back to them in our conditions. They certainly let us know that they were on top of us in that series.
“We need to make sure we start off well in that series and stay strong to make sure they feel a similar pain as we did over in India,” he added.
India had inflicted a 4-0 loss on Australia the last time the teams met in India in February-March 2013. That was in reply to the 4-0 hammering they had received on their last tour Down Under in 2011-12.
The hosts, who have resumed training last Friday, are currently recovering from the shock death of their team-mate Hughes who was struck by a bouncer from Sean Abbott in a Sheffield Shield game on November 24. He died two days late in a Sydney hospital.
“Mentally I’m slowly getting there. Physically, I feel ready to go. There’s no doubt that mentally the last couple of days have been the most challenging of my career. After seeing what happened over the last week, trying to process everything that’s happened, being there at the SCG when it happened as well, it’s been a mentally challenging time but I’ll be ready for Tuesday,” Watson said.
“Everyone is going through the process in their own way and everyone is handling it as well as they possibly can. But it’s been a big challenge to be able to just continue to try and put the memories that I have got – that are very much in the front of my mind – to move it back a little bit in my mind and trust what I do as a batsman,” Watson said.
“I know everyone’s going to be in the same boat as well. It’s not just the guys who were that at the SCG, it’s for everyone around the world,” he added.
Watson, along with Brad Haddin, Nathan Lyon and David Warner, were part of that ill-fated New South Wales versus South Australia game when Hughes was injured by a bouncer and never recovered.
His death saw an outpouring of emotion across Australia and indeed the whole sporting world, and as a result, the Test series was rescheduled with the first Test moving from Brisbane to Adelaide. (PTI)