Shane Watson is confident he will be fit for the opening Ashes Test in Brisbane, saying recent experience tells him his hamstring injury won’t keep him out.
The key all-rounder arrived back in Sydney on Monday morning after tweaking his hamstring while bowling in Australia’s series-deciding one-day loss to India in Bangalore on Saturday.
Watson will have scans later on Monday on what he believes may be a fascial tear, before discussing the results with Cricket Australia’s medical staff and working out how best to prepare for the first Test against England at the Gabba from November 21.
“It’s not too bad,” Watson, walking freely, told reporters at Sydney airport.
“I’ve had a few niggles like this even over the last eight or nine months, so hopefully it won’t be too bad at all or put me out for too long.
“My body’s really adjusting to bowling, it’s just an unfortunate little hiccup in the last game. It would’ve been nice to get home without any niggles.
“Being here it’ll give me a week or two to be able to hopefully freshen up and ready to go for the first Test.”
Asked if he was in no doubt about playing the series-opener against England, Watson replied: “I’d never say no doubt.
“But I’ve been able to get on top of this sort of thing over the last eight or nine months with a few niggles that I had even throughout the Ashes as well.
“So I’m very confident that things should work out okay over the next couple of days and the results will be what I think they are and there shouldn’t be any problems at all.”
Watson backed his decision to battle through the pain and return to bat in Saturday’s 57-run defeat, adding that he didn’t feel he made the injury much worse by pushing on.
“The situation of the game meant I needed to come out and try and give us a chance to win,” he said.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t able to bat in the top, No.3, to try and really give us a chance.
“But you want to do anything you can – it was a game to decide the series, certainly a big game for us. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.
“But in the end, I don’t think I injured myself too much more.”
Watson has had limited time off over the last eight months, with Australia’s punishing schedule keeping him abroad for most of the year.
He said while international cricket was “not an ideal world”, he insisted he was happy to get as much cricket while fit.
“I’ve been fit for the last little while. In the end, any cricket is good cricket,” he said.
“The cricket that was played over in India, especially for the batters it was a great challenge, for the bowlers it was a lot of hard work.
“We certainly aren’t underdone for cricket, that’s for sure.
“For a majority of us we’ve been playing for quite a while, so there should be no excuses for us being rusty at all.”
