Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Shane Watson has labelled the ongoing Indian Premier League season as the most challenging of his career, ESPNCricinfo reported.
Despite the presence of a battery of superstars, RCB have failed to fire this time around. Skipper Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Watson himself have been inconsistent and RCB’s campaign has predictably suffered.
The team has won just two games and are currently placed last with one game left. On an individual level, Watson’s form has not been great either. He has scored just 67 runs with the bat in seven innings with the bat and had an equally unremarkable stint with the ball.
The 35-year-old, who retired from international cricket in March last year, said that not playing cricket at the highest level had an impact on his game as he came into the IPL.
“The biggest challenge for me has been not coming off playing international cricket after which you just go into the flow of the IPL, which is obviously an incredibly strong tournament,” Watson was quoted as saying. “And it’s been a big learning experience for me, how it hasn’t worked this year for me or this season and how I can actually learn from this experience so that the next tournament I’m playing, the Caribbean Premier League, I’m going to be better prepared.
“There’s been a bit of soul searching this IPL over how things have panned out for me personally and about how I make sure I do it better in the next tournaments that I play to be able to contribute a lot better than I have this year to Royal Challengers because I know I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to play for another great franchise and last year was obviously an incredible year.
“But this year, for me personally, it hasn’t been good at all but also for the franchise – things haven’t gone exactly to plan at all and it’s been very disappointing for everyone,” he added.