Katich frustrated with waiting game

On the outside looking in: Simon Katich in the nets © Getty Images

Looking for a definition of bitter-sweet? Try Simon Katich.

Katich, proclaimed the unluckiest man in the world by Ricky Ponting when he lost his Test place to Andrew Symonds, has been trying to enjoy Australia's Test series triumph over Sri Lanka. "It is so good to see the boys having success and win," he said. "But you have that feeling that you haven't contributed if you haven't physically been out there."

Unlike players who are dropped at home, Katich cannot disappear off the radar. Where he'd like to be at the beach or finding consolation among friends and family, instead he has to watch Australia winning without him. "It has been hard because I have been at the cricket all the time," he explained. "But it has still been a big thrill being here for the first time when we have actually won."

Katich has a Test average of 60 and was dropped despite scoring a match-saving century in his last Test against India at the SCG. He realises Symonds was picked purely for the conditions here, given his offspin bowling and batting prowess against spin. But that doesn't make it any easier for a player who was in hot touch throughout the summer.

"I felt this tour would be a big one for me," Katich continued. "The summer was great but I was planning to kick on and make that spot my own but that is the way it has gone and I cannot do much about it. I felt pretty disappointed because I knew I had made improvements to my game and felt I was in the best form of my career and I planned to play in the Test series. That's what made it so disappointing and frustrating.

"The instant you find out you have been dropped is probably the worst feeling you can imagine as a cricketer, particularly when you know you are playing well ... that's when it's hardest to take."

But he's also had plenty of support from an Australian side full of players who have been dropped and have fought their way back into the side. "I have seen it happen to a few of the guys. They have done their time. I got a nice letter from Matthew Hayden explaining to hang in there. He has been through it himself a few years ago. Punter [Ponting] had a chat as well before the first Test.

"The guys have been really good about it. They make you feel a part of it all but when you are not playing you don't feel as if you are contributing because you are not out there."

Katich said a hand injury, caused when a ball hit him on the end of his left ring finger, has affected his wrist-spin bowling which hasn't helped his selection cause. "I have been trying with my bowling but I have not been bowling as much as I would have liked because of my hand."

While the Symonds experiment hasn't been a grand success, the likelihood of another spinners' paradise for the final Test of the series at the Sinhalese Sports Club starting on Wednesday means Australia will most likely keep the same team which won the first two matches. At this stage Katich hasn't heard otherwise, but as he admitted: "I have kept a pretty low profile."