Clarke and Watson show Australia are on the mend 

Like a bone deliberately smashed after an accident and then reconstructed to make it work better, Australia's cricket team appear to be coming together piece by piece.

They had a new coach three days ago, they now have Michael Clarke, their captain, back and among the runs along with their most aggrieved batsman, Shane Watson, whose 90 off 94 balls included 20 fours.

World beating authority may not have returned but they are beginning to look a coherent cricket team. Clarke's well-being and form are vital to the robustness of Australia's Ashes challenge.

A fragile back has dogged him for most of his career but yesterday he moved and scored freely on a true pitch. Dapper in appearance and neat in style, Clarke looks something of a throwback and not only because he is prepared to come down the pitch to spinners with an alternative to heaving it over the top.

Apart from an early swish and miss at Peter Trego, he scarcely made an error with footwork or stroke, no small feat given that this was his first match for three months. When he did get it wrong - by following an outswinger from Craig Meschede - it cost him his wicket. Watson, one of the dissenting voices under the previous regime, looked even more impressive.

Back opening the batting, which is where both he and the new coach Darren Lehmann want him, he looked like making a century before lunch but was denied when a leading edge off Jamie Overton was caught by Trego at extra cover. "Any opportunity I've had to open in the past I have enjoyed," Watson said. "There was no confirmation of my role before Darren took over but to get it confirmed now is very exciting, especially as I have the backing of the coach."

A dominating presence at the crease, Watson looks to hit boundaries, a lust Somerset bowlers fed by bowling full enough to meet the forward swing of his bat. England will not be as generous, but his ability to drive well and pull hard off the front foot makes him a difficult player to bowl at once he is set, as his 20 boundaries suggested. "I feel like my mentality is really suited now to opening the batting so it's going to be nice to take on the English quicks again, who are as good as there are in the world," Watson said.

None really tested him here, though Overton, with his heft and pace and Meschede, who took two wickets, had their moments against the others in Australia's top order. Some have tipped Overton, a strapping 19 year-old, as an outside bet for this winter's Ashes tour, but that looks unlikely unless he makes giant strides.

Quick, but in a hurl-it-down way, the raw product is sound but needs refinement. Meschede lacks his speed but his medium-pace clearly has something, given his reputation as a slayer of giants. Among his 20 first-class wickets to date Meschede can number Clarke, Sachin Tendulkar and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, or 33,942 Test runs.

It is a handy knack. Nick Compton's hopes of an international future were given a boost when Geoff Miller, the national selector, said that no line had been drawn through his name after his selection for -Worcestershire's game against -Australia next week. "He is by no means out of the -picture, that's not how we operate," Miller said. "It was a hard decision, but as selectors sometimes you have to make hard decisions."