Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
The 39-year-old has called it quits after an illustrious career during which he won two ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups and two ICC Champions Trophy titles.
Watson, a right-hand batter and right-arm fast-medium bowler, continued to play in T20 leagues around the world since retiring from international cricket in 2016.
Watson made the announcement, a few days after his team, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), played their last match of IPL 2020, he confirmed that he was bringing the curtain down on 20 years of professional cricket.
“I feel crazily lucky to have lived out my dream, and then some,” Watson said in a video message posted on his website. “It feels like the right time. Knowing that I’ve played my last game of cricket ever for my beloved CSK … To think that I’m finishing up my playing days as a 39-year-old, after all of my injury setbacks that I had along the way, I feel so ridiculously fortunate.”
There is no doubt that Watson has put the numbers on the board as evidenced by the following:
Played 59 Tests, 190 ODIs, and 58 T20Is
Most runs for Australia at ICC Men’s T20WC: 537
Fourth leading run-scorer for Australia in men’s T20Is: 1462
10th leading run-scorer in T20 cricket: 8821
4 in the list of most sixes hit in T20 cricket: 467
Highest individual ODI score by an Australia batsman: 185*
Was No.1 T20I all-rounder when he retired after WorldT20 in 2016
In T20Is, Watson held the No.1 ranking for a record 150 weeks and was the first player to have held the No.1 ranking in both the batting and all-rounder categories
He is the only player to score a century and take four wickets in an innings and was the first player to score a hundred and take a wicket in the same T20I
Only Adam Gilchrist (261) has hit more sixes for Australia than Watson’s 245
His 185* in ODIs is also the highest in a run chase
Player of the Tournament at 2012 T20WC where he scored the most runs (249) and took the second-highest amount of wickets (11)
59 Tests, 3731 runs @35.19 (best 176), 75 wickets @33.68 (best 6/33)
190 ODIs, 5757 runs @40.54 (best 185*), 168 wickets @31.79 (best 4/36)
58 T20Is, 1462 runs @29.24 (best 124*), 48 wickets @24.72 (best 4/15)
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Tags: australian, cricket, record, shane watson