Shane Watson announced his Test retirement during the ongoing One-Day International (ODI) series between Australia and England. Australia lost The Ashes 2015 3-2, with Watson playing only the opening match at Cardiff. While Watson leaves the game with decent Test numbers, one always got the feeling that Watson under-performed given his obvious talent. Watson’s retirement comes at a time when Australia are in a serious rebuilding phase following the Test retirements of Chris Rogers and Michael Clarke, while the likes of Adam Voges and Brad Haddin are at the twilight of their careers. Shiamak Unwalla takes a brief look at a career replete with unfulfilled promise. READ: Shane Watson announces Test retirement with immediate effect
Shane Watson might well be the greatest Australian all-rounder this century. Sadly, this is not so much a credit to his performances as a critique on Australia’s inability to produce quality all-rounders in recent times. A career spanning 10 years and 59 Tests brought Watson 3,731 runs at 35.19 and 75 wickets at 33.68. Among all seven Australians with at least 2,000 runs and 75 wickets, Watson ranks fourth on batting average and sixth on bowling average. Keith Miller and Warwick Armstrong both have better bowling and batting averages than him. However, if one raises the bar to 3,000 runs, only Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, and Watson himself remain. READ: Shane Watson Test retirement: Twitter reactions
And yet, given the obvious talent Watson possessed, one would have expected him to play a lot more and do better with bat and ball. It did not help that he has been made to bat everywhere from Nos. 1-7 in the batting order. He did best while opening, scoring 2,006 runs at 41.79. However, even there he could only score two centuries despite going past 50 on 15 other occasions. For an opening batsman, this is far from ideal. READ: Shane Watson to undergo scans following injury in 2nd ODI vs England at Lord’s
He was tried out at No. 3, and did moderately well with 987 runs at 37.96 including two centuries and six fifties. He scored one half-century at No. 4 and two at No. 6. He would have been an ideal No. 6 had he managed to decode the art of batting in the middle and lower-middle order. Alas, he averaged just about 26 at Nos 4 and 6, and failed miserably at Nos 5 and 7 in the few innings he had at those positions. READ: Shane Watson and George Bailey could well be playing their last ODI series!
At the top of the order, he was often a sitting duck for the in-coming delivery. He also attained notoriety for reviewing (often plumb) LBW decisions. In fact, the image of Watson asking for a review became so infamous it became a meme of sorts. When one thinks of some innings that Watson played — be it his skilful 126 against India on a tough Mohali pitch in 2010 or an exceptional 176 against England at The Oval in 2013 — the immense talent makes his repeated failures all the more frustrating. READ: Australia’s No 3 dilemma in ODIs
With the ball, he would often be the “partnership breaker” but somehow never managed to wreck havoc in a similar fashion as most swing bowlers. On his day could be a handful — most notably when he took 6 for 33 against Pakistan at Headingley in 2010, and 5 for 17 against South Africa at Durban in 2011 — but his lack of stamina meant that he was rarely able to bowl long spells. Being injury-prone did not help his cause either. READ: Australians who bounced back to lead team to glory
When Watson looks back at his career a few decades from now, he will perhaps feel let-down by his own shortcomings. For someone with so much to offer to Australian cricket, he ends his career as yet another almost-was. READ: Watson vs Faulkner: Who is the better all-rounder?
(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek who loves cricket more than cricketers. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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