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Shane Watson is retiring from Test cricket. An explosive batsman and a more-than handy medium-pace bowler, Shane Watson played 59 Tests for Australia. He will not play anymore, after announcing his retirement from Test cricket on Sunday. Despite scoring over 3000 runs and picking up 75 wickets, the abiding memory of Shane Watson’s ten-year-long Test career will forever be the image of the ball crashing into Watson’s pads and him trudging off mournfully after being adjudged leg-before-wicket.

Billed as the next big Australian talent, Watson struggled with injuries throughout his career and could never reach the heights expected of him in Test cricket. Despite being a major part of the Australian team over the next ten years and one point being the vice-captain, it was always a case of “so close, yet so far” for Watto.

Unfortunately in the last few years, the reputation of being a walking-talking LBW preceded him. Innings after innings, Watson would plant his massive front foot down, be unable to get his bat behind the ball and watch the ball thunder into his pads. What made it even more comical for opposition fans was his tendency to review LBW calls which everyone could tell was plumb. Ironically even in his last Test at Cardiff, Watson’s last two innings ended in the same way: adjudged lbw, referring the decision and then watching the original decision being upheld.

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Since his debut in 2005, Watson has been out lbw 29 times, the most by any Australian batsman in the ensuing period. Hopefully, he will leave a much better legacy in the shorter form of the game.