Cowan wants to force Watson down the order

Ed Cowan wants to force Shane Watson down the Australian batting order on his return to the Test team by making himself indispensable at the top.

Appointed vice-captain to Michael Clarke in April last year, Watson has missed every Test match of the home summer due to hamstring and calf problems.

Before his injury Watson, 30, had been Australia's senior opening batsman, but the promotion of Cowan and David Warner has opened an avenue for him to be shuffled down the order into a position more favourable to an allrounder. Cowan, 29, said he wanted to dissuade any lingering thoughts of Watson resuming at the top with a hefty score in the fourth Test against India at Adelaide Oval.

"He (Watson) is probably the best player in the country so they certainly do have to fit him in," Cowan said in Sydney. "It's no different to any other team, when guys are coming back you've got to hold your place in the team through weight of runs.

"How I see my job is to make it so difficult for the selectors that Shane Watson has to bat somewhere else in the batting order. That's simply done by me going out and making runs and the rest takes care of itself. If they're having a discussion 'should Shane Watson be opening the batting', then I'm not doing my job."

Successful as he has been as an opening batsman and change bowler since his Test match recall in 2009, Watson may still be capable of more. A tendency to be dismissed between 50 and 100 means he has never been able to make the truly match-shaping scores expected of the best openers, while he has admitted to struggling with the mental demands of walking off the park a bowler and zipping straight back out after the change of innings as a batsman.

Moved out of the top three, Watson would have more time to re-train his sights. Such a demotion would also sharpen the focus on Watson's bowling, a skill he has wrestled with jettisoning entirely at times during a career more speckled with injury than anyone would have liked.

Cowan's focus is entirely devoted to blunting the new ball then prospering aftewards, and he has already formed a partnership of ideal contrasts with the combative and aggressive Warner. However Cowan admitted that his scores so far had not yet made him safe in his position, as the selectors cast an eye ahead towards Test matches in the West Indies in April.

"Two fifties in three games ... that's okay, that's a pass, but it's not brilliant," Cowan said. "The only disappointing thing for me is to have two 50s rather than two 100s. I pride myself on being able to score the big score once I'm set so that's been a disappointing aspect but I am trying to rectify that this week.

"That's why there's excitement for this Test as well, to really cement that spot and make that a really difficult conversation for the tour of the West Indies."

There was an admission from Cowan that he had perhaps diverted his focus from the narrow objective of the next ball when he had advanced to 68 in Melbourne and 74 in Perth. Thoughts of a century had clouded his thinking, leading to his dismissal in each case.

"I have probably thought about it too much once I am in," he said. "There was that moment in Perth where I looked up and thought 'I am flying again this morning, if I keep going like this I will be 100 by lunch' and all of a sudden I was sitting on my bum back in the change room.

"The key to those big scores [in the lead-up to his Test debut] has been to continue with my rhythms and mental routines and maybe not look at the scoreboard too much."

Australia's players flew into Adelaide from home ports on Friday afternoon, reconvening for the chance to inflict a second 4-0 drubbing on India in as many away series for the world's No. 2-ranked Test team. Cowan said he detected no trace of relaxation among the hosts despite the series being won conclusively in Perth.

"It's exciting that we're on the verge of something special as a team," he said. "Four-nil would be an absolute drubbing of the second best team in the world."