Lehmann hints at Australia changes

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has said the tourists are prepared to make changes for the second Ashes Test, amid speculation all-rounder Shane Watson is set to be dropped.

England won the series opener by a crushing 169 runs with more than a day to spare in Cardiff yesterday.

The match saw Watson twice out in familiar fashion, lbw in both innings for modest scores of 30 and 19, while Australia captain Michael Clarke only utilised his medium-paced bowling for 13 overs in the match.

Watson has now fallen lbw 39 times during the course of a 59-match Test career repeatedly blighted by <g data-gr-id="25">injuries,</g> and has only passed 50 twice in his last 16 innings. With fellow seam-bowling all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, 11 years Watson’s junior, waiting in the wings Australia do have a ready-made alternative and Lehmann indicated it was one the tourists were considering deploying at Lord’s, where the second Test starts on Thursday.

“At the end of <g data-gr-id="21">day</g> you don’t want to be getting out lbw all the time and you want to make more runs,” Lehmann said Sunday. “Shane would be disappointed, so are we. “It’s one of those things where you have to find a way and that’s something we probably didn’t do as a batting group, not just Shane.

“We’ll certainly look at the wicket and work out the best XI to win in those conditions and it means making changes, we’ll make changes.