Shane Robert Watson was born on 17 June 1981. Watson is an Australian international cricketer and occasional captain in all formats who has played for Australia’s national cricket team and currently plays for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League and Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League. Shane Watson is a right-handed batsman and a right-handed fast-medium swing bowler. Watson hails from Queensland. His debut was in 2002 in a One Day International and retired in 2016 as world No. 1 T20I all-rounder. He was the last player to retire from Australia’s golden era of the early 2000s. According to Forbes, Watson was the highest-paid non-Indian cricketer in the world for five consecutive years, 2011 to 2015.

When a cricket fan sits back and recalls the best all-rounders in the history of cricket, Australia’s Shane Robert Watson will surely be on their list. He is the first Australian to score international centuries in all three formats of the game.

‘Watto’ as he is fondly called, was a scholarship holder in the Australian Cricket Academy. Though he started his domestic career with Tasmania, he went back to play for his home team, Queensland.

At the age of 20, he was delivering top performances in the Pura Cup and caught the eyes of the selectors through his performances in the Pura Cup in Australia.

Watson rose to prominence in 2006 when he was asked to open the innings with Adam Gilchrist. He played two crucial innings by scoring half-centuries that led the Aussies to the Champions Trophy victory in India.

He has been the ‘Australian Player of the Year’ in all formats of the game. He was declared the Man of the Series in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 for scoring a total of 249 at an average of 49.80, while taking 11 wickets with the ball. He is the only player to win four consecutive Man of the Match awards in ICC events.

Shane Watson is a prominent figure in the Indian Premier League, having featured for the Rajasthan Royals until 2014. During his time with the Royals, he won two Man of the Tournament awards and also captained the franchise in 2014.

Thereafter, he was signed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he did not deliver as expected.

At the 2018 IPL auction, he was bought by Chennai Super Kings for Rs. 4 crores.

Watson’s career was filled with injuries. He missed the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup due to three stress fractures on his back. Ankle injury, calf injury and dislocated shoulders kept him out of the team for a very long time. Though he had a fragile body, he did not give up hope to survive at the highest level.

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

His stats at the end of his career contained over 11000 international runs and 300 wickets. The Australian all-rounder continues to play franchisee cricket all over the world. He is one of the greatest all-rounders the game has ever seen and his services will surely be missed by the Aussies.

Watson is the only player to lead most runs, most wickets, highest score, highest batting average, most sixes, for a team in T20, which he held for 4 years (2014–17). Also the first player to win man of the tournament IPL twice. In November 2019, he was elected as the president of Australian Cricketers Association. Happy birthday Watson as you turn 38, we wish you the best of years ahead.

Source:- Wikipedia and SportsKeeda