70 Facts About Shane Watson

Shane Robert Watson was born on 17 June 1981 and is an Australian former cricketer who played for and occasionally captained the Australian national cricket team between 2002 and 2016.

Shane Watson was an all-rounder who played as a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler.

Shane Watson was ranked as the world's No 1 all-rounder in Twenty20 Internationals for 150 weeks, including an all-time record of 120 consecutive weeks from 13 October 2011 to 30 January 2014.

Shane Watson began playing during the Australian team's golden era in the early 2000s, and was the last player from this era to retire.

Shane Watson played Twenty20 cricket for a number of leagues around the world, including the Indian Premier League.

Shane Watson was named the player of the tournament in the IPL twice and won the tournament twice.

Shane Watson continued to play in Twenty20 leagues after his retirement from international cricket in 2016, and retired from all forms of cricket in 2020.

Shane Watson began playing cricket at an early age and represented Queensland Primary Schools in an interstate championship in Darwin in 1993.

Shane Watson began playing club cricket in Ipswich for the local Brothers club, then played Brisbane Grade Cricket for Eastern Suburbs.

Shane Watson represented the state at both under-17s level and under-19s level, and ultimately represented Australia in the 2000 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

Shane Watson was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 2000.

Shane Watson was first selected for the Australian team in early 2002, being selected to tour South Africa with the Test team.

Shane Watson had topped the Pura Cup wicket-taking charts for Tasmania, as well as had steady middle-order batting performances.

Shane 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.

Shane Watson 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.

Shane Watson was contracted with Hampshire to play county cricket in 2004.

Shane Watson signed as a replacement player, as Hampshire knew that their two international players would be unavailable for part of the season while they played for Australia.

In January 2005, Shane Watson made his test debut in the third Test of Australia's home series against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Shane Watson was played as Australia's fifth bowler, giving them the ability to play three fast bowlers and two spin bowlers on a dry pitch that was expected to be conducive to spin bowling.

Shane Watson was part of Australia's ODI squad in their 2005 tour of England.

The castle is believed to be haunted, and Shane Watson was "spooked out" by his room so fled and spent the night sleeping on the floor in teammate Brett Lee's room instead.

Shane 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.

Shane Watson was again replaced by Symonds and was unable to represent Australia for the remainder of the summer.

Shane 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 Shane Watson would be included in the side.

Shane 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.

Shane Watson returned to international duty in the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE, scoring a century.

Shane Watson returned to the Australian Test side for the 3rd Ashes Test match at Edgbaston on 30 July 2009 as an opener.

Shane Watson scored his second highest Test score of 96 against the West Indies in the Second Test in Adelaide in December 2009.

On Day four, Shane 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.

Shane Watson 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.

On 30 March 2011, Shane Watson was named test and ODI vice-captain.

Shane Watson made several records in this match, which include most sixes, highest score by an Australian batsman, fastest 150, most runs from boundaries, highest individual score while chasing in an ODI and highest score in the second innings of an ODI match, dethroning MS Dhoni's 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005.

Shane Watson then scored 41 not out from 24 balls to win the Man of the Match award as his side won by 17 runs.

Shane Watson followed it up with 72 from 42 balls making a mockery of the target 141.

At the completion of the group stages and Super Eight stages, Shane Watson had the most runs, wickets and sixes.

Shane Watson was part of Australia's team in their 2013 Test series in India.

Shane 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.

Shane Watson was named as one of the members of Australia's 15-man World Cup squad on 11 January 2015.

Shane Watson played in all but one of Australia's World Cup matches, as Australia went on to win the tournament.

Shane Watson had a disappointing start to his World Cup campaign, dismissed for a first ball duck in Australia's first match of the tournament against England, and dismissed for 23 against New Zealand in a losing effort.

Shane Watson played in Australia's 95 run semi-final victory over India, scoring 28 runs from 30 balls.

Shane Watson played in the 2015 Cricket World Cup Final, scoring 2 not out as Australia prevailed over New Zealand by 7 wickets, winning their fifth Cricket World Cup as a result.

Shane Watson was part of Australia's squad for their 2015 tour of England, which included the 2015 Ashes series.

Shane Watson 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.

Shane Watson was dropped from the team for the rest of the series.

On 31 January 2016, Shane 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.

Shane Watson played for Australia in the 2016 World Twenty20 in March 2016 in India.

Shane Watson played his final match in Australia's loss to India in their final group match, which knocked them out of the tournament.

Shane Watson played for Rajasthan Royals in seven of the first eight seasons of the Indian Premier League, signing for the side for the inaugural IPL season in 2008.

Shane Watson was the Player of the Tournament during the season, but missed the second season whilst on international duty.

Shane Watson again won the Player of the Tournament in 2013.

Shane Watson captained the side in 2014 and was the highest-paid overseas player.

Shane 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.

Shane Watson captained the side for some matches during the 2017 season but was signed by Chennai Super Kings for the following season.

Shane Watson scored his third and fourth IPL centuries during the 2018 season, and remained with the side in 2019.

Shane Watson was Chennai's leading run-scorer in 2019 with 398 runs across 17 matches.

Shane Watson's 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.

Shane Watson played his final IPL season in 2020 for Chennai.

Ahead of IPL 2022, Shane Watson joined Delhi Capitals as assistant coach of the franchise.

Shane Watson signed with Australian Big Bash League franchise Sydney Thunder in 2015 and was a member of the team that won the BBL that season.

In 2016 Shane Watson was announced as one of the icon players for the first season of the Pakistan Super League.

Shane Watson played for Islamabad United initially, moving to Quetta Gladiators in subsequent seasons.

Shane Watson was one of the most successful all-rounders in the history of international cricket, particularly in limited overs matches.

In ODI cricket, Shane 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.

Shane Watson 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.

Shane Watson scored 14 centuries in international cricket: four in Test matches, nine in ODIs and one in a Twenty20 International.

Across all three formats of international cricket, Shane Watson has been named the Player of the Match on 29 occasions and the Player of the Series on 7 occasions.

Shane Watson has won the Allan Border Medal twice, and has won several other awards at the Australian Cricket Awards:.

In 2017, Shane Watson launched a sports clinic, Let's Activate, for children.

Shane Watson has his own podcast called Lessons Learnt with the Greats.