Acting Australia captain Shane Watson concedes fatigue could be a factor for some members of his squad heading into the tour of West Indies.
The one-day squad headed to West Indies on Friday, just over 12 hours after clinching the tri-series title against Sri Lanka in Adelaide.
Awaiting them is a five-match one-day series crammed into just 10 days, with several players backing up for two Twenty20 internationals in the following five days.
It is the final phase of a packed eight-month schedule which included tours to Sri Lanka, South Africa and the West Indies and a full summer of domestic combat against New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka.
"There's no doubt there's some guys that have played the whole summer who are going to be a little bit tired," Watson said.
"But in the end, that's part and parcel of playing international cricket.
"You are playing just about all year round, and you've got to find ways to be able to freshen up whenever you possibly can and to be able to keep doing everything you can to stay as fresh as you can to be able to perform."
Apart from dealing with a 5:15am wake-up call on Friday for a flight from Adelaide to Sydney, tiredness is not going to be a factor for Watson, who missed most of the international matches due to injury.
"From my perspective, I'm very fresh after missing the majority of the summer so I'm really excited about being able to go and continue to play a lot more cricket," Watson said.
But despite the tiring schedule, Watson believes his side can be almost unbeatable if it keeps up the impressive cricket shown in the tri-series finals.
"We need to maintain that standard because, if we do bowl and field like that, we're going to win just about every game that we play because we've got the skills with our batting side of things to be able to get enough runs," he said.
"I think we really set a standard last night that we need to maintain no matter what and I really believe that we can do it.
"It's a challenge to be able to continue to get up like that every single game, but we are playing for our country, so there's no excuse."
Australia is ranked seven places above the Windies in one-day cricket and three above the Carribean side in the Test arena.
While on paper, it looks like being one of Australia's less-taxing assignments of late, Watson was predictably respectful.
"The West Indies have got some pretty amazing athletes within their side so, if they have a good day, they certainly can have a very good day," he said.
Watson has relished the chance to captain his country in the absence of regular skipper Michael Clarke, who will miss most, if not all of the one-day games in the West Indies due to a hamstring strain.
"To be honest, I didn't think I'd probably enjoy it as much as I have out on the field," Watson said.
While he produced another influential death-bowling spell in Thursday's final, Watson was not convinced he was always the man for the job.
He said there were quite a few options for the vital task, including Xavier Doherty, Daniel Christian, Brett Lee and Clint McKay, but he has "really enjoyed the captaincy."
AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, australia First posted March 09, 2012 15:27:22
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