Oz planning to “cook” England bowlers in Australian summer: Shane Watson

SYDNEY - The Australian team plans to “cook” England’s trio of quicks- Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Steven Finn- along with spinner Graeme Swann in the Ashes, Aussie batsman Shane Watson has said.

“Because they do only have four bowlers, we want to try to keep them out there for as long as possible,” The Age quoted Watson, as saying to reporters at Allan Border Field on Monday ahead of Thursday’s first Ashes Test at the Gabba.

“In the Australian summer, there’s going to be a lot of hard work. That is our plan, to try to cook them as early as we can,” he added.

Watson pointed out that relying on four bowlers “in Australian conditions” was going to “put a huge load, especially on the quicks.”Australia were able to do it for a long period of time but they had McGrath and Warne, some of the all-time great bowlers,” he noted.

Watson said that one of Australia’s goals as a batting unit was “to keep them out there for as long as we possibly can because it is a long series five Test matches and it’s going to be a lot of workload for those three quicks especially.”

“That’s one of our advantages in our team is our options. If someone’s having a slight off day, hopefully it won’t affect the team too much,” the batsman added. (ANI)