SHANE Watson typifies everything that is wrong with Australian cricket.

It is easy to finger the selectors for this abject humiliation in Hyderabad - and they are not blameless - but many of Cricket Australia's contracted players need a good look in the mirror.

Watson should be the first.

This morning, he must undertake a candid self-analysis to figure out where he is going with his career, why he is under-performing and what he must do to warrant being picked for the Ashes.

Cricket Australia has invested millions in Watson. Not for a second would anyone deny he has talent. But Australian cricket fans are growing tired of Watson's form undulations and incessant injury sagas that seem to take up as much airtime as episodes of Days of Our Lives.

At the moment, Watson's CA deal is worth about $1.5 million a season. He is one of CA's highest-ranked players.

For such remuneration, it is reasonable to expect a world-class match-winner.

Instead, Australia has an all-rounder who cannot bowl on this tour, cannot be relied upon to play consistently without breaking down and cannot convert starts into big tons in the Test arena.

At his best, Watson has the skill-set to emulate Andrew Flintoff and win his country an Ashes series.

The problem is Watson is simply not giving Australia bang for its buck.

Cricket can throw up some mind-numbing statistics but in the case of Watson they are compelling - and could justify his axing for the third Test.

Consider this. Watson has not scored a Test ton in two-and-a-half years. Yesterday, after scoring nine, his century drought at Test level has stretched to 37 innings.

In the past 18 months, he is averaging 25.20 as a batsman from 13 Tests. Of his 24 innings in that time, 17 have featured scores of 30 or less.

Cricket Australia high-performance chief Pat Howard was pilloried last summer for having the temerity to suggest Watson may not be among Australia's top-six batsmen.

On the evidence before us, Howard is 100 per cent right.

There are many players on this tour who have no experience playing in India. But Watson has been playing here for a decade in all sorts of guises, from one-day cricket, to Test matches, to World Cups, to IPL tournaments.

Yet on this tour, as the vice-captain, he has scored 28, 17, 23 and 9. That's 77 runs in four innings at 19.25 for a senior player, batting at No.4, who has an intimate understanding of Indian conditions and the strategies needed to succeed here.

The selectors have made some stupefying decisions in recent months but ultimately the buck has to stop with players paid $500,000-plus annually to uphold the traditions of the baggy-green.

Players of lesser experience than Watson, such as Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc, were dropped for not performing in the first Test.

There is no reason why Watson, for all his talent and potential, should be immune to the axe himself.