“The Delhi Capitals have a great team. It’s time to win their first title,” said the former all-rounder.
Shane Watson (assistant coach) will join Ricky Ponting (head coach), Ajit Agarkar (assistant coach), Pravin Amre (assistant coach) and James Hopes (bowling coach) on the Delhi Capitals backroom staff. This is the first time the former Australian handyman will be involved with a team as a manager. “With Delhi Capitals, they have a great team,” he said in a statement released by the franchise. “Now is the time to win their first title. I’m super excited to go out there, to work with the guys, to help them as much as possible and hopefully we can win their first title. I can’t wait to go there.
Watson has extensive experience as a player in the T20 cricket franchise, having won titles in the IPL, BBL and PSL. MVP in the Rajasthan Royals’ inaugural title run in 2008, Watson ended his IPL career with Chennai Super Kings. In Super King’s title-winning 2018 season, he played a key role as a frontrunner, contributing 555 runs to the team’s second-place finish in 15 innings. In the final, Watson scored a century of wins over Sunrisers Hyderabad. During this time, he was also briefly part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“The IPL is the best T20 tournament in the world,” he said. “I have amazing memories as a player, first with Rajasthan Royals winning it in 2008, led by amazing man Shane Warne, RCB then CSK. I have amazing memories as player and now training opportunities.” He came to work under the great Ricky Ponting. He was an extraordinary leader as a captain and is now able to coach under him. He is now one of the best coaches in the world. So to be able to learn the basics with Ricky, I’m really excited.
While Watson played 59 Tests for Australia, it was in clean ball cricket that he did his best. In 190 ODI, he scored 5757 runs at 40.54 with a strike rate of 90.44, as well as 168 wickets at 31.79. of two Australian World Cup winning teams, in 2007 and 2015, and was a Champions Trophy powerhouse, winning the PlayeroftheMatch award in the 2006 and 2009 tournament finals.
In T20Is he completed 1462 runs with a rate of 145.32 and won 48 wickets while maintaining an economy rate of 7.65. He was the player of the series at the 2012 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka, where he topped the standings with 249 points from a rate of 150.00 and finished second in the wicket standings with 11 scalps suffering 7.33 runs per over. He retired from all forms of cricket in November 2020 after a disappointing IPL season with the Super Kings where they failed to reach the playoffs for the first time.
