IPL 2019: "Most of the other teams would have dropped me by now but CSK kept faith", Shane Watson

What's the story?

Shane Watson has thanked Chennai Super Kings' head coach Stephen Fleming and skipper MS Dhoni for backing him, despite his regular failures in the previous matches.

In Case you don't know…

Watson managed to score only 147 runs in the first 10 matches of this season's IPL. Many experts thought that Watson would be dropped. But CSK didn't drop him and persisted with the Australian. And he repaid that faith by scoring a match-winning knock of 96 runs off 53 balls, with a wonderful strike rate of 181.13 against SRH yesterday. He was also awarded the Man of the Match award for this knock.

The heart of the matter:-

Watson believes that the faith which Fleming and Dhoni showed in him motivated him to score runs and win matches for his team. He also feels that he might have been dropped sooner if had failed like this for any other team.

Shane Watson said in his post match interview,

“I was due runs, that's for sure. I can't thank Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni enough to have kept faith in me. In any other team, I may have been dropped sooner. Happy to repay that faith. I knew I was in good nick, just needed to get my head right, get my technique right, had a bit of luck by playing and missing in the beginning.”

Appreciating Watson, skipper Dhoni commented,

“I think you can give individuals a few games. Watson has been a match winner for us so we need to back him and he has been batting well in the nets. If Watson gets going, you know what's on the plate.”

Watson was one of the heros behind CSK's success last year. He had scored 555 runs, averaging 39, with strike rate of 155 in IPL 2018. He also played a match winning knock in the final against SRH last season. Highlighting his importance in the team, Harbhajan Singh said,

“It's nice to see Shane Watson getting those runs under his belt. He's a serious player, last year he won us the final single-handedly, and this innings will boost his confidence.”

What's next?

CSK are the current table toppers with 16 points. They have already qualified for the playoffs, with three league matches still remaining.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on orange cap, points table, schedule, news, live scores, purple cap and fantasy tips.