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Shane Robert Watson (born 17 June 1981) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator and former who played for and occasionally captained the Australian national cricket team between 2002 and 2016. He was an all-rounder who played as a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast bowling. He was ranked as the world's No. 1 all-rounder in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) for 150 weeks, including an all-time record of 120 consecutive weeks from 13 October 2011 to 30 January 2014. He began playing during the Australian team's golden era in the early 2000s, and was the last player from this era to retire. In his time playing for Australia, Watson was part of their winning squad in the Cricket World Cup two times in 2007, and 2015 along with the ICC Champions Trophy twice in 2006 and 2009, with Watson named as the player of the match in the final on both occasions, as he scored the winning run in the 2006 tournament, with the winning six in the 2009 tournament.
Watson also played Twenty20 cricket for a number of leagues around the world, including the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was named the player of the tournament in the IPL twice (in 2008 and 2013) and won the tournament twice (in 2008 and 2018). He continued to play in Twenty20 leagues after his retirement from international cricket in 2016, and retired from all forms of cricket in 2020.
Watson was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 2000. Before 2000, players who were part of the academy were required to play cricket in their home states in the following year, but a rule change that year made Watson a free agent, and he chose to move to Hobart, Tasmania where he was guaranteed an immediate place in the Tasmanian state team. He played for Tasmania in the second half of the 2000–01 Sheffield Shield season, making his way up the order from batting at number 7 on debut to batting at number 4 at season's end. In half a season he scored 309 runs at an average of 51.50, including his maiden first-class century in his fifth match, and took 11 wickets at an average of 26.27. At the end of the season he signed a three-year contract with Tasmania
Watson continued as a regular member of the ODI team in place of Waugh despite public support for Waugh to return to the ODI team. He stayed in the team until the start of 2003, when he suffered three stress fractures in his back, meaning he missed the 2003 Cricket World Cup. When he returned to cricket from his injury, he was only able to bat, not bowl, while his recovery finished.
Watson was contracted with Hampshire to play county cricket in 2004. He signed as a replacement player, as Hampshire knew that their two international players (Shane Warne and Michael Clarke) would be unavailable for part of the season while they played for Australia. In April 2004, Watson also switched teams in domestic cricket, moving back to his home state to play for Queensland.
In January 2005, Watson made his test debut in the third Test of Australia's home series against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Watson was played as Australia's fifth bowler, giving them the ability to play three Fast bowling (including Watson) and two Spin bowling (instead of the usual one) on a dry pitch that was expected to be conducive to spin bowling.
Watson was part of Australia's ODI squad in their 2005 tour of England. While on the tour, the Australian team spent a night in Lumley Castle in County Durham. The castle is believed to be haunted, and Watson was "spooked out" by his room so fled and spent the night sleeping on the floor in teammate Brett Lee's room instead. 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.
Watson had expected to be fit for the Boxing Day Test, 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, 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 wide long-on 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. At the end of the year, Watson suffered a stress fracture of the back. 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.
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. Watson named Australia's best by the media, The Roar, Retrieved on 11 January 2010
During this period as an opener, he had the highest Australian Test cricket batting average (50.40) for 2 calendar years (2009–2010). Test Batting Average 2009–2010. Retrieved on 12 September 2015.
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| 61.11% | |||||||||
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| Date last Updated: | 31 January 2016 | ||||||||
During 2010–2013, he won a series of Australian "Player of the Year" awards, including the 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.Buckle, Greg (9 September 2012) Australia fired to lift ranking. Smh.com.au. Retrieved on 26 May 2018. 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.Kaushik, R. (29 September 2012) Watson tilts the scales in Australia's favour. icc-cricket.com 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. Shane Watson threat looms over South Africa. Retrieved on 30 April 2015. 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. One-man team Shane Watson makes it four from four for Australia. Independent.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 May 2018.Samiuddin, Osman (30 September 2012) Patience pays for prudent Shane Watson. thenational.ae His dominance with both bat and ball made him the unanimous choice of the experts to be named Player of the Tournament. Player of World T20. Stuff.co.nz (8 October 2012). Retrieved on 26 May 2018. Shane Watson named ICC World Twenty20 2012 player of the tournament. icc-cricket.com (7 October 2012 ) Shane Watson T20 World Cup Man of the Series. rajasthanroyals.com (8 October 2012)
Watson was part of Australia's team in their 2013 Test series in India. Australia suffered heavy defeats in the first two Test matches. After the second match, coach Mickey Arthur requested that the players each give an individual presentation on the team's failures and where they could improve. Watson and three other players (Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson, and Usman Khawaja) failed to do so. As a result, the team management (including Arthur and captain Michael Clarke, who was a team selector at the time) decided not to consider the four players for selection in the third Test match. Watson and his then-pregnant wife left India and returned home to Australia for the birth of their child, a contingency that had been in place before he was dropped. Watson returned to India for the final match of the series, and stood in as the team's captain because Clarke had a back injury. Australia lost the match and ultimately lost the series 4–0, with Watson's poor batting in particular letting the team down.
Following the series in India, Australia played back-to-back Ashes series in the 2013 English summer and the 2013–14 Australian summer. Watson played in both series, batting at number 3.
Watson was part of Australia's squad for their 2015 tour of England, which included the 2015 Ashes series. He played in the first Test match of the Ashes in Cardiff, but he failed to take any wickets with the ball or score many runs with the bat. He was dropped from the team for the rest of the series. In the following ODI series against England, Watson suffered a calf injury which ruled him out of the rest of the tour. After this injury, Watson decided to retire from Test cricket with the hope of continuing to play in the two shorter formats.
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, including becoming the first Australian batsman to score a century in all three formats of the game.Updated, Aprameya C. (31 January 2016) The records that Watson set. Oneindia.com. Retrieved on 26 May 2018.
Watson played for Australia in the 2016 World Twenty20 in March 2016 in India. Partway through the tournament, on 24 March, 14 years to the day since his international debut for Australia, Watson announced that he would retire from international cricket at the end of the tournament. Watson was the last remaining Australian player from Australia's dominant era in the early 2000s (having made his debut before Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath retired in 2007, usually seen as the end of Australia's dominant era). He played his final match in Australia's loss to India in their final group match, which knocked them out of the tournament.
In 2016, Rajasthan were suspended from the competition for two years. Watson was forced to enter the IPL auction for the first time since 2008, and was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for AU$1.96 million, the most of any Australian player. He captained the side for some matches during the 2017 season but was signed by Chennai Super Kings for the following season. He scored his third and fourth IPL centuries during the 2018 season, and remained with the side in 2019.
In 2019 IPL final,after the Mumbai Indians batted first and scored 149, Watson top-scored for Chennai with 80 runs off 59 balls. His innings took the match into the final over, but he was run out and Chennai finished their innings on 148 runs, losing the final by a single run. Following the match, Watson's teammate Harbhajan Singh posted a photograph taken during the match on Instagram. The photograph showed Watson's pant soaked with his leg's blood, and Singh wrote in the image's caption that "Watson got 6 stitches after the game ... got injured while diving but continue sic to bat without telling anyone".
Watson played his final IPL season in 2020 for Chennai. On 2 November 2020, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Ahead of IPL 2022, Watson joined Delhi Capitals as assistant coach of the franchise.
In 2016 Watson was announced as one of the icon players for the first season of the Pakistan Super League. He played for Islamabad United initially, moving to Quetta Gladiators in subsequent seasons. Quetta Gladiators appointed Shane Watson as the Head Coach for the PSL 9 Season. The same year he was a marquee player in the Caribbean Premier League, playing in the league for two seasons.
In ODI cricket, Watson was ranked as the No. 1 all-rounder in the world in 2011, and reached a career-high as the No. 3 batter in the world. As part of the Australian team, he won the Cricket World Cup twice (in 2007 and 2015) and the ICC Champions Trophy twice (in 2006 and 2009), winning the player-of-the-match award in the tournament final both times.
In T20I cricket he was ranked as the No. 1 all-rounder in the world for two years, and also peaked as the No. 1 batter in the world. He never won the ICC Men's T20 World Cup with Australia, but he was named the player of the tournament in the 2012 tournament, when he had the most runs and second-most wickets of all players at the tournament.
| +Test centuries scored by Shane Watson ! No. ! Score ! Against ! Venue ! Date ! Result |
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| + T20I centuries scored by Shane Watson ! No. ! Score ! Against ! Venue ! Date ! Result |
| Australia lost |
Cricket Australia holds an annual awards ceremony called the Australian Cricket Awards, where they honour the best cricketers in the country over the previous year. The most prestigious of these awards is the Allan Border Medal, which is awarded to "the most outstanding Australian male cricketer of the season". Watson has won the Allan Border Medal twice, and has won several other awards at the Australian Cricket Awards:
In November 2019, he was elected as the President of the Australian Cricketers' Association.
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