djf01's appreciation of the situation is based upon present circumstances. In other words; we're stuck with Watson in England, or M Marsh as apparently the only other option.  

I will take issue with the statement that he's our best dry pitch bowler. In my opinion, figures of 109 tests and 75 wickets at 33 apiece don't support this view. I'd rather have Siddle and Lyon on a dry track.
And, "Watson didn't throw his wicket away"? As Mr McEnroe would have it, "You cannot be serious." Throwing his wicket away is precisely what Watson did in both innings, because he either cannot or will not learn to play straight to deliveries pitched up on middle. He swipes across his front pad and goes lbw. He's done it 29 times in Tests alone for heavens sake. My major complaint about Watson is that he is a serial offender at getting a start and throwing it away.

Watson should not even be in England. He has not been worth a place in the Australian team for at least the past five years. He has been given far more opportunities than he's worth. He has batted at 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, and has not been a success at any position.
He owes his place to the selectorial obsession with an all rounder.

This is a part copy of an article I kept from some years ago. I happen to agree with everything the writer says.

Selecting is hard. Always selectors, knowing they can pick only 11 men, wish somehow to turn 11 into 12. Under Hilditch's chairmanship the wish has become an obsession. Normally selectors see that there is no allrounder worthy of summoning and so content themselves with 11, the best 11. Hilditch's method is different: where no allrounder can be found, we shall build one. Andrew McDonald of Wodonga is the latest Frankenstein-style construction to be stirred from sleep, wound up at his back and sent on to the Sydney Cricket Ground as Australia's new No. 6. History is against Hilditch. Australia has fielded more allrounders than most countries. Even so, if we rule out wicketkeepers and stick to the classic definition of an allrounder as someone who bats and bowls well enough to earn a place in any team for either discipline, then Australia has produced seven: George Giffen, Monty Noble, Warwick Armstrong, Jack Gregory, Keith Miller, Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson. That's one every 19 years, and none in the past 46. Even these are inflated figures. Technically, if Benaud or Davidson had elbow niggles that prevented them bowling, selectors would seldom have picked them as specialist batsmen; the reverse applies to Armstrong and, less strongly, to Giffen and Noble too. If we believe the classic definition, only Garry Sobers and about six others were ever true allrounders. The classic definition is too strict. Really, an allrounder is someone who commands selection with one skill and is an invaluable contributor with their second string. By this logic, handy sorts like Gus Gilmour and Greg Matthews just about qualify. By no available logic do Hilditch's projects - McDonald, Cameron White, Andrew Symonds or Shane Watson - amount to Test allrounders.