Shane Watson has backed Australia’s decision to drop allrounder Dan Christian for Friday’s fourth one-day international against the West Indies.
Christian was left out of the team along with off-spinner Nathan Lyon as Peter Forrest and Ben Hilfenhaus came into the team.
But the South Australian’s lower-order hitting could have proved vital in the contest as Australia slumped to a 42-run defeat, with Brett Lee running out of partners as he mounted a late counter-attack with a ODI career best 59.
And while Australia went with a more specialised line-up of batsmen and bowlers, the West Indies allrounders played a large role in the victory with century-maker Kieron Pollard as well as Andre Russell and Darren Sammy starring.
Watson didn’t feel Christian’s omission had been a mistake however and said he felt he had a team with the right balance to secure victory.
“In hindsight I wouldn’t have done anything differently,” Watson said.
“Obviously their allrounders played a big part but that’s why you’ve got specialist players as well as allrounders, to be able to do their job.”
Watson said the defeat had more to do with missed opportunities, something Australia will need to rectify in Sunday’s final match of the series with the Windies holding a 2-1 lead.
If the home team can avoid defeat it’ll be their first ODI series win over Australia since 1995 and Pollard knows how much that would mean to his teammates and the team’s fans.
“We will try to win the series 3-1,” Pollard said.
“We are already up 2-1 and we cannot lose the series but we want to finish with a win. We have worked really hard to get here and we want to go all the way. The job is not yet done.”
Australia cancelled their training session on Saturday to allow players a chance to recuperate before Sunday’s game, which starts at 9.30am (0030 Monday AEDT) at the Beausejour Stadium.