Watson no longer worried about axe

The fear of failure no longer spooks Shane Watson, with the veteran shedding his stresses about his international future and living in the moment.

Watson returned to international duty in Australia's KFC T20 INTL series-opening defeat against India on Australia day, having been left out of the one-day team that beat the same opposition 4-1.

The World T20, hosted by India in March, remains the most likely swansong for the allrounder who first represented Australia in 2002. Boasting plenty of Indian Premier League experience, Watson was player of the tournament at the 2012 tournament in Sri Lanka.

But the 34-year-old, preparing to face India at the MCG on Friday, faces a fierce battle to make Australia's final squad of 15, which will be named following the Chappell-Hadlee ODIs in New Zealand.

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Australia are expected to make a several changes to their XI for the second T20 with a squad of 17 at their disposal a precursor to the World T20. There will be at least two guaranteed changes, with Steve Smith and David Warner both to sit out the remaining two games – a move foreshadowed when the squad was first named 10 days ago.

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Watson is one of a handful of allrounders in the squad and in previous years, he admitted he would be stewing over the thoughts of Rod Marsh's panel.

Now it's a different story.

"I'm over worrying about whether I'm going to get picked for the Australian team or not," Watson told reporters at the MCG today.

"There's no doubt I was putting more pressure on myself to perform ... at times, you freeze a little bit out there because you're too worried about failing – instead of just worrying about getting out there and taking the game on, which is how I've been since I stopped worrying about any selection."

Watson was one of Australia's best bowlers in Adelaide, picking up two key wickets in his first over and will be required to step up on Friday with Warner and Smith out of the XI that suffered a 37-run loss to India on Australia Day.

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Glenn Maxwell, who shapes as critical to Australia's hopes of finally winning the T20 World Cup after five failed attempts, is likely to return from a knee niggle at the MCG.

Watson was full of praise for Maxwell, who was crowned ODI Player of the Year at the Allan Border Medal awards night on Wednesday.

"He can come in and just take the game away from the opposition incredibly quickly," Watson said.

"He's got all the shots ... he just hits the ball wherever he wants.

"You can't really captain against it because, wherever you set the field, he'll hit it where the fielders aren't. He's incredibly talented."

Watson suggested there could be a bit of turn in the MCG pitch given it's so late in summer.

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He was one of many players to fall victim to spin in the opening T20 of the three-match series.

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"India's world-class spinners will come into the game a bit more. We certainly, as a batting unit, have to play them better, much better than we did in Adelaide," he said.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who dismissed Watson and Aaron Finch in Adelaide, hoped the hosts would continue to go after him.

"If they have a licence (to attack), I have a licence to pick up wickets," the offspinner said.

"I continually watched the Big Bash to see how the spinners tried to go about it.

"Coming to Australia has always been very challenging, but we enjoy it."