Shane Watson announces retirement

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Watson

Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, after a career spanning nearly two decades.

Watson had already retired from international cricket in 2016, but has since been showcasing his skills in various T20 leagues at home and abroad.

He has now confirmed that his game for the Chennai Super Kings against the Kolkata Knight Riders on October 29 was his last match.

He made 14 on the day and finished the season with the Super Kings with 299 runs at an average of 29.90 and a strike rate of 121.05.

“It all started out as a dream, as a young kid, saying to my mum as I watched a Test match as a five-year-old, ‘I wanna play cricket for Australia.’ And now as I officially announce my retirement from all cricket, I feel crazily lucky to have lived out my dream, and then some,” Watson said on his YouTube channel T20 Stars.

“It really does feel like the right time. Knowing that I’ve played my last game of cricket, ever, for my beloved CSK, who’ve been so incredibly good to me over the last three years.

“To think that I’m finishing up my playing days as a 39-year-old after all of my injury setbacks that I’ve had along the way, I feel so ridiculously fortunate.”

White Ball Behemoth

Whilst Watson’s red-ball record at international level is perhaps somewhat disappointing for a man of his talent – 3731 runs at 35.19 and 75 wickets at 33.68, it is as a limited-overs cricketer he made a name for himself.

He was a crucial part of Australia’s World Cup-winning teams in 2007 and 2015, and won the Player of the Match award in the finals of the 2006 and 2009 Champions Trophy.

In ODIs he scored 5757 runs at 40.54 and a strike rate of 90.44 while taking 168 wickets at 31.79.

He made 1462 runs at a strike rate of 145.32, and took 48 wickets while maintaining an economy rate of 7.65 in T20s and was the player of the tournament at the 2012 World T20.

He finished his international career as one of only eight players to have scored 10,000 international runs and taken 250 wickets.

Aside from the IPL and Australia’s Big Bash League, Watson also regularly played in the Pakistan Super League, the Bangladesh Premier League and the Caribbean Premier League.

Shane Watson

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