'Shane is just coming off the Test series in Sri Lanka. He bowled some good spells down there and probably more in a Test series than he has for quite some time. Shane's had a history of injuries early in his career and we got a direction from Cricket Australia that they didn't want him to bowl,' Stuart said yesterday ahead of his team's CLT20 group league match against Chennai Super Kings.
Speaking to the media, he said, 'Straight after this series, they have the series in South Africa and then they're back in Australia to play New Zealand and then India. He's (Watson) going to have a big workload this summer. We don't have any issues with Shane not bowling.'
About their match against CSK, Stuart said his team had a gameplan in place to beat the defending champions but it's up to the boys to execute it.
'We have a gameplan and it is up to us as to how we execute it,' the Stuart said.
'The boys been playing to the best of their ability and I'd say it's a good sign for us that we are improving. Regardless of what wicket we are provided tomorrow, we have a gameplan and it's upto us how we execute it.'
For his assessment of the slow behaviour of the wicket, Stuart said, 'I was here two years ago as part of the New Zealand A set up and the pitch is certainly a lot different to what it was then.
On the chances of playing Nathan Hauritz, the coach quipped, 'It will be discussed. We think we have a balanced bowling attack anyway, regardless of whether we play an extra-spinner or an extra-seamer. It's about executing one ball at a time under pressure and whatever we go with, I think the boys will be comfortable doing that.'
As for Phil Hughes getting a chance to play since Daniel Smith has so far failed with the bat, he said, 'Look, we've won the last two games and I am against changing the balance of the side.'
He admitted that situation out there is tough.
'It's always a tough situation. The scores from the four innings yesterday were 100, 123, 101 and 111 so it's tough (out) there. The wicket probably helped (the bowlers), stayed slow and low. The new ball, up until last night was probably the easiest to score runs from.'
