Shane Watson Profile by CricketArchive

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Player:

SR Watson

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DateLine: 17th June 2008

 

He is a talented middle order batsman who should have been at the high point of his career right now, but has not been able to do so, because he has always been struck down by injuries. As a boy he played for Queensland Under-17s at 15, and then went to the Academy. He then fled to Tasmania, to get a shot at first class cricket and within five games he had clubbed his maiden hundred; within a year he was picked for Australia. He was picked in the national team with the 2003 World Cup in mind but he missed out with stress fractures of the back an injury that has been troubling him since his teenage years. He bounced back from his injury in style with four hundreds for Tasmania and smashed an unbeaten 300, too, in a club game for Lindisfarne, also taking 7 for 29. Watson remains the cleanest of hitters with the bat and one of the sharpest on the field with the ball. However, injuries one after the other, have been the bane of his career ever since he was picked for his first Test in 2004-05 against Pakistan. He missed the Ashes series in 2005 and most of that season with a dislocated shoulder. After the tour to South Africa he hurt his leg and then suffered food poisoning during the 2006 champions trophy. He again missed the Ashes in 2006 due to a pulled hamstring and missed half the world cup with a calf problem. Now, fit after a long time and under the able guidance of Shane Warne, he appeared in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals and bamboozled every one with all round display, winning the man-of-the-tournament award, after which he was once again selected in the Australian ODI squad for the tour of West Indies. He went to West Indies and ended up scoring his first international hundred in the absence of Hayden. He continued to have a good odi series picking a wicket in every odi.