In the last week of 2004, Darren Lehmann played his final Test for Australia. Come the Sydney New Year's Test of 2005 he was replaced by a 23-year-old allrounder named Shane Watson. Big things were expected of Watson. "An exciting young talent," the chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said of Watson at the time. "His inclusion in the squad gives us some variety".

A decade later, variety is still the best word to describe Watson's offerings. He has batted in every position from 1 to 7. He has opened the bowling, has been used as first change, second change, third change, fourth change and fifth change. He has played 54 Tests since his debut, and missed 56. He has served as Australia's 44th Test captain. He has been everything and nothing.

Tin is the traditional gift for a tenth anniversary and Watson has spent his ten years in the Test team turning into Australian cricket's Tin Man. Watching him lumber rigidly to the crease to bowl these days, he might as well be staggering stiff-limbed out of the woods to meet Dorothy and Toto on the Yellow Brick Road. Had he fulfilled his all-round potential, he could have been cricket's Wizard of Oz.

But there aren't enough oil cans in Australia to help Watson keep his body in good order. Injuries have accounted for most of his missed Tests. They have also contributed to his changing roles. When Watson has spent a week, a month or a year out of the team, others have come in. He returns to find someone else sitting in his old place. Nor have his performances made one spot his own. With Watson it has always been a question of potential, of what he could do. But what has he done? A decade in and out of the Test team has brought a batting average of 35.51 and a bowling average of 32.71. Pretty good for an allrounder, on the surface. Australian cricket would be happy if James Faulkner played the next ten years and ended up with those Test averages.

Watson is an allrounder but must be judged as a batsman, for only a quarter of his Test innings have been played outside the top three. And the only Australians with more Test runs than Watson's 3480 for a lower average have been Rod Marsh and Ian Healy, both wicketkeepers who mostly batted at Nos.7 or 8. As a batsman alone, Watson has underwhelmed.

As a bowler, Watson is shrewd. He lacks the pace of his youth but has compensated with accuracy and subtle swing, including reverse. He is a valuable fifth bowler. But ten years after his debut Australia, 70 Test wickets is a paltry tally. Bob Simpson took 71 from only eight more Tests than Watson has played.

As a batsman, Watson is far from clever. He thumps boundaries, can take one-day attacks apart. Occasionally does so in Tests as well. But dumb shots are played, mistakes are repeated, starts are squandered. In Australia's chase of 128 at the Gabba he was out top-edging a hook when he was yet to score. In the first innings, he failed to clear mid-on, going too hard on 25.

Often, his medium-pace has saved him from the axe. But not since the infamous 47 all-out Cape Town Test of more than three years ago has Watson taken more than one wicket in an innings. His constant soft-tissue injuries have discouraged the Australians from over-using him. The irony of seeing him bowl so much in Brisbane because of Mitchell Marsh's injury was lost on nobody.