Shane Watson

Early career

Shane Watson was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 2000. He started his first-class cricketing career for Tasmania after leaving his home state of Queensland, but returned to play for his native Queensland as his international career was beginning. He has also played for Hampshire in the English County Championship in 2005. He regards Terry Alderman as one of his mentors.

2002–2009

Watson was selected for his first Australian team in early 2002, being selected to tour South Africa with the Test team after topping the Pura Cup wicket-taking charts for Tasmania, as well as steady middle-order batting performances. Watson did make his ODI debut on tour, replacing Steve Waugh, who was sacked after the team failed to make the ODI finals in the preceding Australian summer. Watson continued as a regular member of the ODI team until he suffered three stress fractures in his back, at the start of 2003, missing the 2003 Cricket World Cup. He was replaced by his Queensland teammate Andrew Symonds, who proceeded to establish his position as the all rounder after scoring 143* and 91* during the tournament.

Watson returned to regular ODI duty in the 2004–05 season, as a bowling all rounder. He also made his test debut in the Third Test against Pakistan as the fifth bowler, in order to allow Australia to play two spinners and three pace bowlers on a dry Sydney Cricket Ground pitch.

Australian selectors included Watson as the fifth bowler and all rounder in all Test matches following the 2005 Ashes series. Watson played against the ICC World XI in the role, but he dislocated his shoulder in just his second Test in that designated role against the West Indies, after diving to field a ball. Watson was again replaced by Symonds and was unable to represent Australia for the remainder of the summer.

This changed when Watson opened the batting for Australia at the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, alongside wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, instead of Simon Katich. After failing in the first two matches against the West Indies and England, Watson made a 50 in Australia's victory over India, which sealed their place in the semi-finals, he then took 2 Wickets and scored 57 not out in the finals to seal the win. In the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy held in South Africa, Watson again played a prominent role, making two consecutive 100s against England and New-Zealand in semi-final and final, helping Australia to defend their title.

Watson was named in the squad for the 2006–07 Ashes series against England. However, he came off the ground in a one-day domestic game the week before the first Test with a suspected hamstring tear, which ruled him out for the first three Tests. Michael Clarke was called up in Watson's place, and responded with a half-century, and then a century to cement Clarke's place in the team.

Watson was expected to be fit for the fourth Test on Boxing Day and the MCG in Melbourne, and because of Damien Martyn's unexpected retirement, it looked likely that Watson would be included in the side. However, another injury setback in a match for Queensland ruled Watson out for the rest of the Ashes series. Watson eventually returned in February to the ODI side, replacing Cameron White in the all rounder position, However he again broke down with injury during the 29th match of 2007 Cricket World Cup and missed two matches of the Super 8's before returning in fine style scoring an unbeaten 65 off 32 Balls against New Zealand. Injury again struck Watson in the early stages of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 as he missed most of the tournament due to hamstring strain. He was then out of action for the 2007–08 Australian season.

After Symonds was omitted from the Australian team for disciplinary reasons, and Watson took the all rounder's position for the tour of India in late 2008, batting at No. 6. During the Third Test in Delhi, he was involved in a series of confrontations with Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, who scored a double century and reached his century by lofting Watson over midwicket for six.

After returning to Australia, Symonds was recalled to the Test team and both all rounders played in the First Test against New Zealand in Brisbane. As the pitch was a green, rain-affected moist surface expected to favour seamers, spinner Jason Krejza was dropped to accommodate two seam bowling all rounders. After the match, which Australia won, Watson was dropped as spinner Nathan Hauritz was included and Symonds retained. Symonds continued to perform poorly, and there were calls for Watson to take his place, but both men then fell injured at the end of the year, Watson with a stress fracture. Watson returned to international duty in the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE, scoring a century.

He returned to the Australian Test side for the 3rd Ashes Test match at Edgbaston on 30 July 2009 as an opener. In a rain interrupted match he made 62 and 53 batting alongside Simon Katich. He scored his second highest Test score of 96 against the West Indies in the Second Test in Adelaide in December 2009. He and Katich put on a century stand and he had reached 96 at stumps, only to inside edge his first ball of the next morning onto his stumps while attempting to hit a boundary to reach his century. In the Third Test, he made 89 in another century stand with Katich. In the second innings, he removed opposition captain Chris Gayle and then charged towards him, screaming in celebration directly in front of him. This earned him a fine from the match referee, and considerable criticism from much of the Australian public.

In the First Test against Pakistan, he made 93 runs on Boxing Day and featured in his third century stand in as many matches with Katich, but was run out after a mix-up with Katich in which both players ended up running towards the same end, again falling short of his debut Test hundred. On Day four, Watson finally made his first Test hundred, which came in interesting style, by hitting the ball hard to the fielder at point who put the catch down. When Ponting declared, he remained not out on 120. Watson was awarded man of the match on 30 December for his role in Australia's Test victory.

In the second innings of the Second Test at the SCG, Watson fell short of another century, dismissed for 97. During this Test, the Australian Cricket Media Association presented Watson with Australian Cricketer of the Year Award.

2010–2016

In the first test of Australia's 2010 tour of India, Watson opened his account with his second test century – an attritional 126 runs off 338 Balls on a slow, low Mohali pitch. The innings capped an excellent start to the tour, as he also scored a century in each innings of the warm-up match, albeit at a much brisker pace. He topscored again in the second innings with a run-a-ball 56, which proved vital in setting a competitive target as Australia's middle order again collapsed in spectacular fashion following his dismissal.

During this period as an opener, he had the highest Australian Test batting average (50.40) for 2 calendar years (2009–2010).

On 30 March 2011, Watson was named test and ODI vice-captain. On 11 April 2011 he made 185 not out off 96 balls against Bangladesh. Watson made several records in this match, which include most sixes, highest score by an Australian batsman, fastest 150 and most runs from boundaries. Due to injuries in the home series against South Africa and Sri Lanka, he decided to become a top order batsman instead of an allrounder.

During 2010–2013, he won a series of Australian "Player of the Year" awards, including Allan Border Medal in 2010 and 2011.

Before the start of 2012 ICC World Twenty20, there were no expectations on Australia as it was ranked only 10th in the world. After two stages of the tournament, Australia were placed at sixth, moving up four places and became one of the favourites to win the tournament. This is the only time a team's place in the rankings has changed so drastically in a short time, due to four straight wins against top-ranked teams. Much of this success was due to an in-form Shane Watson.

In the first match against Ireland at R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Watson opened the bowling and took 3–26 (the wickets of opener-captain William Porterfield, keeper-batsman Niall O'Brien and all-rounder Kevin O'Brien); he then scored 51 from 30 balls to help his side win the match in 15.1 overs. He was subsequently named as Man of the Match. In the next match against the West Indies he again opened the bowling and batting, taking 2–29 from 4 overs (the wickets of Chris Gayle & Kieron Pollard). He then scored 41 not out from 24 balls to win the Man of the Match award as his side won by 17 runs (by the Duckworth-Lewis method). Against India, he was used as second change bowler and took 3–34. It was he who had changed the game by taking the wickets of Yuvraj Singh and opener Irfan Pathan in the 11th over. He also dismissed Suresh Raina in the last over. He followed it up with 72 from 42 balls (7 sixes and 2 fours) making a mockery of the target 141. Against South Africa he took 2–29 (the wickets of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers), following it up with 70 from 47 balls to win his fourth consecutive Man of the Match award. At the completion of the group stages and Super Eight stages, Watson had the most runs, wickets and sixes. His dominance with both bat and ball made him the unanimous choice of the experts to be named Player of the Tournament.

Before the 3rd Test against India in March 2013, the team management of Michael Clarke, who was also a selector at the time, and coach Mickey Arthur, dropped four players from the 3rd test, which included vice-captain Shane Watson, along with James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja for failing to make a presentation on team performance. Watson had subsequently flown back to Australia due to the birth of his first child. Michael Clarke and coach Mickey Arthur were severely criticized and ridiculed by the public, media and former players for such a silly decision. Watson returned to the team for the fourth and final test of the series, and captained the test side (due to an injury to Clarke) for the only time in his career. After the tour, Watson resigned as vice-captain, while Cricket Australia sacked Mickey Arthur as coach and stripped Michael Clarke as a selector in the following weeks.

In 2015 World Cup, he helped Australia reaching the finals scoring 67 against Sri Lanka, and 64 against Pakistan, as Australia went on to win the tournament.

On 31 January 2016, Watson was named T20I captain and became one of the few Australians to captain in all formats, he opened the innings after a long gap and scored 124*, which made several records.

He retired from international cricket in 2016 and became the last player to retire from Australia's golden era of early 2000s. He was named Australia’s T20 International Player of the Year on 23 January, 2017.

T20 Leagues

Watson is the only player to lead most runs, most wickets, highest score, highest batting average, most sixes, for a team in T20. Also the only player to win man of the tournament IPL twice.

Watson played in the Indian Premier League for the Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural IPL season in 2008. Signed for US $125,000, he performed well with both the bat and the ball scoring four half-centuries to anchor his team to victory in three matches of the tournament and in the semi-finals. He picked up 17 wickets, won four Man of the Match awards in his first twelve games and also the Man of the Series award.

On the back of his IPL performance, Watson was subsequently selected to replace Matthew Hayden in the one day series as part of Australia's tour to the West Indies, after Hayden was injured during the IPL season. Watson went on to establish himself as an ODI opener in the series.

Watson missed the second IPL season due to national duty and injury, and Rajasthan failed to reach the top four in the qualifying rounds. For the 2011 season, Rajasthan Royals successfully retained Shane Watson along with the skipper Shane Warne.

On 22 April 2013 Watson scored his first century in Twenty20 cricket, playing in the IPL against the Chennai Super Kings at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. He scored 101 runs off 61 balls, hitting six fours and six sixes. His strong performances continued and he subsequently went on to win the 2013 Man of the Tournament award.

For the 2014 IPL season, a fresh player auction was held; Watson was again retained by the Royals for US $2 million, making him the highest paid overseas player and one of a few international cricketers to play for the same IPL franchise from the inception of the tournament. He was also appointed captain of the team for the 2014 season.

After the suspension of Rajasthan Royals for two years in 2016, Royal Challengers Bangalore signed him for US $1.4 million.

Shane Watson signed with BBL franchise Sydney Thunder in 2015. He is the captain of the team.

Shane Watson is the first foreign player to be picked in 2016 PSL draft. He is the Icon Player of the team Islamabad United.

In 2016, CPL announced Shane Watson as the first marquee player of the six overseas marquee players. He plays for the franchise Zouks.

Twenty20 International

One Day International

Other

Sports clinic

In 2017, Watson launched ‘first of its kind’ sports clinic Let’s Activate for kids. It is the world's first comprehensive sporting program for children that teaches the basics of sports skills, using specially-written songs, movement, dance and sports activities for 2–6 year olds.

Personal life

Watson is married to broadcaster Lee Furlong. They have two children.

International recognition