Shane Watson officially retires, fans pay tribute to Chennai star with best-ever moments

Cricket fans will no longer get a chance to watch Shane Watson bat again after the former Australian allrounder decided to call time on his cricket career on Tuesday. On Monday, various reports had emerged that after Chennai ended their Dream11 IPL 2020 campaign on Sunday with a win over Punjab, Watson informed his teammates about his decision to retire from all forms of cricket.

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Shane Watson retirement from cricket

The Shane Watson retirement news was confirmed by a tweet made by the cricketer himself. Watson quit international cricket in 2016 but kept playing in T20 leagues such as the Dream11 IPL. He won the inaugural season in 2008 with the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan side and his second title came with Chennai in 2018. This year, Watson had a poor season, scoring 299 runs at 29.90 in 11 innings. He retired from Australia’s Big Bash last year. Here is the Shane Watson retirement tweet -

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Fans react to Watson retirement news

Shane Watson career stats

Speaking about the Watson career stats, the Australian played more than 700 international and domestic matches, scoring more than 25,000 runs. With his bowling skills, he has claimed more than 600 wickets. Speaking about his Dream11 IPL performances, Watson scored has scored 3,874 ruins from 145 matches and has taken 92 wickets.

Throughout his career, he played for three IPL franchises i.e. Chennai, Rajasthan and Bangalore. Whether in the Dream11 IPL or for the Australian national side, Watson was considered the 'Man of the Big Stage', with several Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament Awards to his name. He was part of Australia's 2006 and 2009 Champions Trophy as well as 2007 World Cup winning teams, playing an integral role in each of them. In the Dream11 IPL, Watson is renowned for scoring a hundred in the 2018 final against Hyderabad, which was a winning effort eventually. And in the 2019 final, Watson top scored again, with a gritty 80, although Chennai lost the game to Mumbai by 1 run.

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Watson Dream11 IPL salary

Talking about the Watson Dream11 IPL salary in his first three seasons with Rajasthan, the former Australian all-rounder earned approximately ₹1.68 crore according to InsideSport's Moneyball. In 2011, Shane Watson received a massive wage hike, which propelled his earnings for that season to almost ₹6 crore and that increased to ₹6.9 crore by the end of 2013. In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Shane Watson was paid a staggering ₹25 crore in salary by the Rajasthan Royals, his highest paycheck in the Dream11 IPL.

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He then moved to the Bangalore, where he earned ₹9.5 crore, in each of his two seasons. Shane Watson was subsequently purchased by CSK in the IPL 2018 Auction for ₹4 crore. In all, during his 13-year-stint in the IPL, the former Australian all-rounder has amassed a whopping ₹77 crore.

Disclaimer: The above Shane Watson IPL salary is sourced from various websites and media reports. The website does not guarantee a 100% accuracy of the Shane Watson Dream11 IPL salary figures.

Image: Shane Watson / Twitter