Shane Watson survived injuries, a haunted castle and three nineties before his first Test hundred
On a 2005 tour of England, the Australian squad spent a night at Lumley Castle, reputedly haunted. Shane Watson was so spooked by his room that he fled to sleep on Brett Lee's floor. It fitted a career of lurid setbacks, from back stress fractures to torn hamstrings, before he became the world's top Twenty20 all-rounder.
Raised in Ipswich, Queensland, Watson played at the 2000 Under-19 World Cup and, freed by an academy rule change, moved to Tasmania for a guaranteed state place. He scored a century in only his fifth first-class match. He made his one-day debut in 2002 replacing Steve Waugh, but three stress fractures in his back cost him the 2003 World Cup, and for a time he could bat but not bowl. His Test debut came in January 2005, and a dislocated shoulder soon interrupted that too.
Promoted to open, he thrived. He scored hundreds in the semi-final and final of the 2009 Champions Trophy as Australia kept their title. His first Test century took agonisingly long: he fell for 96 against the West Indies, bottom-edging his first ball of the morning onto the stumps, then was run out for 93 against Pakistan when both batsmen charged to the same end. Days later he reached three figures when a fielder dropped a hard chance, finishing on 120 not out. Across 2009 and 2010 he had the best Test batting average of any Australian.
In April 2011 he smashed 185 not out from 96 balls against Bangladesh, a record-laden innings including the highest one-day score by an Australian. He won the Allan Border Medal in 2010 and 2011, and between October 2011 and January 2014 he spent a record 120 straight weeks ranked the world's best Twenty20 international all-rounder.
Watson won the World Cup in 2007 and 2015 and was the last of Australia's early-2000s golden generation to retire. In the IPL he was player of the tournament in 2008 and 2013 and a champion in 2008 and 2018, and he kept playing in leagues until he stopped altogether in 2020.
Source: Shane Watson
