Shane Watson missing out on century in Sydney Test hard to understand: Tom Moody

Shane Watson

Sydney, Jan 7 - Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody has taken a dig at struggling batsman Shane Watson for his shot selection that led to his dismissal on 81 runs on the second day of the fourth Test against India here on Wednesday.

Watson, under much pressure for a prolonged run drought, miscued a pull to be caught by Ravichandran Ashwin off the bowling of pacer Mohammed Shami at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Watson appeared certain to reach his ton when he got out. Moody then spoke about how an experienced player like him could play such a shot, but also credited Watson for a "good" innings.

"I can't understand, for one minute, why Watson has played that shot, he has worked so hard to get to the point he got to, it wasn't a fluent innings, but you'd have to say it's a good innings given the fact he is reconstructing himself as a Test cricketer," Moody was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

The 33-year-old all-rounder, ahead of the Sydney Test, had said that he was working hard on his game to score as many as possible, but was under immense pressure to perform as it has been a year since he last scored a ton in Tests.

"I've been working very hard on my game, to be able to put all the pieces together after breaking it down in the off-season," Watson had said on Saturday.

"If I'm not performing of course I'm under pressure. The thing I think about the most is to just being able to contribute to the team, not whether I'm playing or not".