'Sacked' Watson returning back to India for Delhi Test following son's birth

Sydney, Mar 18 : Vice captain Shane Watson, who was axed from the third Test against India in Mohali over a disciplinary breach, is heading back to rejoin the Australian cricket squad on Monday after he was went back home for his son's birth.

One of four players suspended from the current third Test in Mohali, Watson returned home to Sydney in time for the birth of his baby son Will last Thursday, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Cricket Australia (CA) has announced he will fly out back to India later on Monday, in time for the fourth Test in Delhi starting on Friday.

Watson was originally expected to return home after the third Test and miss the fourth Test, but his standing down over the homework-gate affair proved a blessing in disguise when his baby was born earlier than had been expected, the paper said.

When leaving India early last week, a clearly disgruntled Watson declared he would reconsider his Test future, as he evidently was unhappy at being dumped for the third Test when tour management clamped down on lax behaviour in the squad by suspending Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson for not supplying feedback when required on how the team could improve after going 2-0 down in the series, the paper added.

Now, with Clarke suffering back problems which prevented him from batting on day four of the third Test on Sunday, Watson could even be in line to skipper Australia in the fourth Test should the leader not recover sufficiently, the paper reported.