Statistical Comparision: Andrew Flintoff and Shane Watson

Battle of the seam bowling all-rounders – Freddie Flintoff and Shane Watson

Henry Clay once said, “Statistics are no substitute for judgments”.

Even though players, or any individual for that matter, cannot be brought down to mere statistics, we set out to compare the stats of two of the most fearsome all-rounders of 21st century to get a better grasp of their careers.

Before we start with the comparision, it is important to bear in mind that both of them had slightly different roles and responsibilities, Freddie being a bowling all-rounder for England and Watto being a star batting all-rounder for Australia. While Flintoff batted lower down the order, Watson floated up and down the order throughout his career, and even opened for Australia a few times. Both the players were immensely talented, but their careers were seriosuly affected/ cut short by injuries.

Here’s a look at their career stats.

Overall Batting in Tests

Player	Matches (Innings)	Runs	HS	Average	100s/50s
Andrew Flintoff	79 (130)	3845	167	31.77	5/26
Shane Watson	59 (109)	3731	176	35.19	4/24

Overall Bowling in Tests

Player	Matches (Innings)	Wickets	Runs	BBI	Economy
Andrew Flintoff	79 (137)	226	7410	5/58	2.96
Shane Watson	59 (93)	75	2526	6/33	2.75

Overall Batting in ODIs

Player	Matches (Innings)	Runs	HS	Average	100s/50s
Andrew Flintoff	141(130)	3394	167	32.77	3/18
Shane Watson	190 (169)	5757	185*	40.54	9/33

In the batting department, Watson clearly stands out with more runs, and more centuries. Though he’s played more matches, his average is much better, also due the fact that he has 27 not outs in ODIs.

Watson's Batting Performance in ODIs against Major Teams

Team	Matches (Innings)	Runs	HS	100/50
Bangladesh	9 (5)	350	185*	1/1
England	43 (40)	1306	161*	3/5
India	19 (19)	717	102	1/4
New Zealand	18 (16)	552	105*	1/4
Pakistan	21 (17)	569	116*	1/3
South Africa	16 (15)	333	82	0/1
Sri Lanka	21 (19)	517	69	0/4
West Indies	26 (24)	853	125	126

Flintoff's Batting Performances against Major Teams in ODIs

Team	Matches (Innings)	Runs	HS	100/50
Bangladesh	8 (6)	239	70*	0/3
Australia	21 (19)	519	87	0/1
India	19 (19)	708	99	0/4
New Zealand	11 (11)	277	106	1/1
Pakistan	14 (14)	443	84	0/3
South Africa	12 (10)	321	78*	0/3
Sri Lanka	10 (9)	222	104	1/1
West Indies	15 (12)	313	123	1/1

Shane Watson’s best batting performance is agaisnt arch-rival England, while his English counterpart has had the best record against India. The Australian all-rounder has a better batting record, with more runs against all the major teams.

Overall Bowling Performance in ODIs

Player	Matches (Innings)	Wickets	Runs	BBI	Economy
Andrew Flintoff	141 (119)	169	7410	5/19	4.39
Shane Watson	190 (163)	168	5342	4/36	4.95

Even here, the difference between the wickets is marginal, but Flintoff has a slightly better economy rate.

Ashes to Ashes

Batting	Bowling

Player	Matches (Innings)	Runs	HS	Overs	Wickets
Andrew Flintoff	14 (17)	856	102	459.5	43
Shane Watson	14 (27)	1069	103	144.4	7

The oldest rivalry in cricket has been between Australia and England, and if there is one series that cricket fans from both these countries await with bated breath, then it’s the Ashes.

Andrew Flintoff owes much of his success to the Ashes series of 2005- a series that transformed him into an Ashes legend of sorts. Flintoff was England’s saviour in the series and ended up being the highest wicket taker and third highest run-getter. He was crowned as the “BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2005” – the first cricketer since Ian Botham.

One of the most poignant Ashes moments remain Flintoff’s image trying to console a dejected Brett Lee. After Flintoff announced his retirement in 2010 due to an injury, Brett Lee had described him as an “absolute beauty”.

For a very long time, Shane Watson was termed as Australia’s response to Flintoff in Ashes, but somehow his occasional brilliances in batting couldn’t translate into consistent all-round performances. It was in the 2009 Ashes series that Watson first got to open for Australia- a strategy that clicked temporarily.

Battling the heat - Performance in the Indian subcontinent

Player	Matches	Runs	100s/50s	Wickets
Andrew Flintoff	14	642	0/6	46
Shane Watson	12	627	1/3	19

Visiting teams often have a difficult time playing on the flat subcontinental pitches in humid conditions.

While Watson has scored 540 runs in India, and 87 in Sri Lanka, Freddie played in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, scoring 374, 143 and 125 runs in each respectively. Since both Watson anf Freddie are right-arm fast bowlers, they faced similar problems on the spin-friendly Indian tracks, but the English all-rounder clearly leads in the bowling department by a big margin.

Final Verdict

Like George Canning said, “I can prove anything with statistics, but truth.” Judging a sportsperson solely by his/her statistics would be unfair. But it is also true, that statistics in sports cannot really be manipulated easily, and therefore provide a clear picture.

What the stats reveal corresponds to the fact that both Watto and Freddie had different roles to play. While Watson was a better batsman, Flintoff showed better skills with the ball, along with being the undoubted Ashes hero.

Flintoff had retired from all the formats in 2010, owing to an injury, and since then he has turned to professional boxing, alongside making frequent appearances in reality shows.

Watson was the star batsman for Australia for a while, but an injury-plagued career kept bogging him down, and caused a prolonged dip in form. He announced his retirement from Test cricket after the 2015 Ashes series, following a dismal performance.