Australia all-rounder Shane Watson announces his retirement from International cricket, he would retire at end of T20 World Cup 2016 being held in India.
Watson, 34, shared his decision to call it quits with teammates in Mohali, where Australia take on Pakistan in a World T20 group match on Friday, Cricket Australia said.
Watson had retire from Test Cricket at the end of last year’s Ashes tour which was held at England, and he has not played ODIs since last year September.
“The game of cricket and sport in general is there to be thoroughly enjoyed and I certainly wasn’t enjoying it that much. The thing that really shone through at that point in time was how much I really do love the game and realising that I was absolutely living the dream and just had to get through that period of time having faith that there was light at the end of the tunnel and there certainly was. it changed within two or three months with Darren [Lehmann] coming in and really turning things around. Like all situations in life when it doesn’t work out how you want it … if you stick it out for a period of time there is normally some light there. I’ve been very fortunate that there certainly was with an Ashes win at home and a World Cup at home as well. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Watson was the last surviving player of Australian era, having played along with Glenn McGrath, Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist.
He was the consistent performer in shortest format of cricket. He reached No.1 spot for ICC T20I batting rankings and hold the No.1 spot All-rounder spot for two years. Only Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting smashed more sixes than Shane Watson for Australia in ODI cricket.
He finished his ODI career with 5757 runs at an average of 40.54 and 168 wickets at 31.79. He holds the record of highest scorer by Australian cricketer in ODI cricket – 185 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2011.
So far, Watson has played 56 games and scored 1400 runs at an average of 28 and took 46 wickets at 24.71. He played in three World Cup campaigns and was part of Australia’s triumphs in 2007 and 2015.
He added,”Hopefully there’s still one highlight to come, with us really hitting our straps over the next two games. Then once you get to the semis you never know what will happen.”