2002–2009 Watson was first selected for the
Australian team in early 2002, being selected to
tour South Africa with the Test team. He had topped the
Pura Cup wicket-taking charts for
Tasmania, as well as had steady middle-order batting performances. On the tour, he played a tour match against the
South Africa A team, where he scored a quickfire century off of 96 deliveries and took three wickets. Watson also made his ODI debut on tour, replacing
Steve Waugh, who was sacked after the team failed to make the finals of the
2001–02 VB Series. Watson continued as a regular member of the ODI team in place of Waugh despite public support for Waugh to return to the ODI team. He stayed in the team until the start of 2003, when he suffered three stress fractures in his back, meaning he missed the
2003 Cricket World Cup. When he returned to cricket from his injury, he was only able to bat, not bowl, while his recovery finished. Watson was contracted with
Hampshire to play
county cricket in 2004. He signed as a replacement player, as Hampshire knew that their two international players (
Shane Warne and
Michael Clarke) would be unavailable for part of the season while they played for Australia. In January 2005, Watson made his test debut in the third Test of Australia's
home series against Pakistan at the
Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Watson was played as Australia's fifth bowler, giving them the ability to play three
fast bowlers (including Watson) and two
spin bowlers (instead of the usual one) on a dry pitch that was expected to be conducive to spin bowling. Watson was part of Australia's ODI squad in their
2005 tour of England. While on the tour, the Australian team spent a night in
Lumley Castle in
County Durham. The castle is believed to be haunted, and Watson was "spooked out" by his room so fled and spent the night sleeping on the floor in teammate
Brett Lee's room instead. Australian selectors included Watson as the fifth bowler and all rounder in all Test matches following the
2005 Ashes series. Watson played against the
ICC World XI in the role, but he dislocated his shoulder in just his second Test in that designated role against the
West Indies, after diving to field a ball. Watson was again replaced by Symonds and was unable to represent Australia for the remainder of the summer. This changed when Watson opened the batting for Australia at the
2006 ICC Champions Trophy, alongside wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, instead of
Simon Katich. After failing in the first two matches against the
West Indies and
England, Watson made a 50 in Australia's victory over
India, which sealed their place in the semi-finals, he then took 2 wickets and scored 57 not out in the finals to seal the win. In the
2009 ICC Champions Trophy held in
South Africa, Watson again played a prominent role, making two consecutive 100s against
England and
New Zealand in semi-final and final, helping
Australia to defend their title. Watson was named in the squad for the
2006–07 Ashes series against England. However, he came off the ground in a one-day domestic game the week before the first Test with a suspected hamstring tear, which ruled him out for the first three Tests. Watson had expected to be fit for the Boxing Day Test, however, another injury setback in a match for Queensland ruled Watson out for the rest of the Ashes series. Watson eventually returned in February to the ODI team, replacing
Cameron White in the all rounder position, However he again broke down with injury during the 29th match of
2007 Cricket World Cup and missed two matches of the Super 8's before returning in fine style scoring an unbeaten 65 off 32 balls against New Zealand. Injury again struck Watson in the early stages of the
2007 ICC World Twenty20 as he missed most of the tournament due to
hamstring strain. He was then out of action for the 2007–08 Australian season. After Symonds was omitted from the Australian team for disciplinary reasons, Watson took the all rounder's position for the tour of India in late 2008, batting at No. 6. During the Third Test in Delhi, he was involved in a series of confrontations with Indian opener
Gautam Gambhir, who scored a double century and reached his century by lofting Watson over wide long-on for six. After returning to Australia, Symonds was recalled to the Test team and both all rounders played in the First Test against New Zealand in Brisbane. As the pitch was a green, rain-affected moist surface expected to favour seamers, spinner
Jason Krejza was dropped to accommodate two seam bowling all rounders. After the match, which Australia won, Watson was dropped as spinner
Nathan Hauritz was included and Symonds retained. At the end of the year, Watson suffered a stress fracture of the back. Watson returned to international duty in the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE, scoring a century. He returned to the Australian Test team for the 3rd Ashes Test match at Edgbaston on 30 July 2009 as an opener. In a rain interrupted match he made 62 and 53 batting alongside
Simon Katich. He scored his second highest Test score of 96 against the West Indies in the Second Test in Adelaide in December 2009. He and Katich put on a century stand and he had reached 96 at stumps, only to inside edge his first ball of the next morning onto his stumps while attempting to hit a boundary to reach his century. In the Third Test, he made 89 in another century stand with Katich. In the second innings, he removed opposition captain Chris Gayle and then charged towards him, screaming in celebration directly in front of him. This earned him a fine from the match referee. In the First Test against Pakistan, he made 93 runs on Boxing Day and featured in his third century stand in as many matches with Katich, but was run out after a mix-up with Katich in which both players ended up running towards the same end, again falling short of his debut Test hundred. On Day four, Watson finally made his first Test hundred, which came in interesting style, by hitting the ball hard to the fielder at point who put the catch down. When Ponting declared, he remained not out on 120. Watson was awarded man of the match on 30 December for his role in Australia's Test victory. In the second innings of the Second Test at the SCG, Watson fell short of another century, dismissed for 97. During this Test, the Australian Cricket Media Association presented Watson with Australian Cricketer of the Year Award.
2010–2014 In the first test of Australia's 2010 tour of India, Watson opened his account with his second test century – an attritional 126 runs off 338 balls on a slow, low Mohali pitch. The innings capped an excellent start to the tour, as he also scored a century in each innings of the warm-up match, albeit at a much brisker pace. He topscored again in the second innings with a run-a-ball 56, which proved vital in setting a competitive target as Australia's middle order again collapsed in spectacular fashion following his dismissal. During this period as an opener, he had the highest Australian
Test batting average (50.40) for 2 calendar years (2009–2010). On 30 March 2011, Watson was named test and ODI vice-captain. On 11 April 2011 he made 185 not out off 96 balls
against Bangladesh. Watson made several records in this match, which include most sixes, highest score by an Australian batsman, fastest 150, most runs from boundaries, highest individual score while chasing in an ODI and highest score in the second innings of an ODI match, dethroning MS Dhoni's 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005 (he held this record until it was broken by
Fakhar Zaman in April 2021). During 2010–2013, he won a series of Australian "Player of the Year" awards, including the
Allan Border Medal in 2010 and 2011. Before the start of
2012 ICC World Twenty20, there were no expectations on Australia as it was ranked only 10th in the world. After two stages of the tournament, Australia were placed at sixth, moving up four places and became one of the favourites to win the tournament. This is the only time a team's place in the rankings has changed so drastically in a short time, due to four straight wins against top-ranked teams. Much of this success was due to an in-form Shane Watson. In the first match against
Ireland at
R. Premadasa Stadium in
Colombo, Watson opened the bowling and took 3–26 (the wickets of opener-captain
William Porterfield, keeper-batsman
Niall O'Brien and all-rounder
Kevin O'Brien); he then scored 51 from 30 balls to help his team win the match in 15.1 overs. He was subsequently named as
Man of the Match. In the next match against the
West Indies he again opened the bowling and batting, taking 2–29 from 4 overs (the wickets of
Chris Gayle &
Kieron Pollard). He then scored 41 not out from 24 balls to win the
Man of the Match award as his team won by 17 runs (by the
Duckworth-Lewis method). Against
India, he was used as second change bowler and took 3–34. It was he who had changed the game by taking the wickets of
Yuvraj Singh and opener
Irfan Pathan in the 11th over. He also dismissed
Suresh Raina in the last over. He followed it up with 72 from 42 balls (7 sixes and 2 fours) making a mockery of the target 141. Against
South Africa he took 2–29 (the wickets of
Hashim Amla and
AB de Villiers), following it up with 70 from 47 balls to win his fourth consecutive
Man of the Match award. At the completion of the group stages and Super Eight stages, Watson had the most runs, wickets and sixes. His dominance with both bat and ball made him the unanimous choice of the experts to be named Player of the Tournament. Watson was part of Australia's team in their
2013 Test series in India. Australia suffered heavy defeats in the first two Test matches. After the second match, coach
Mickey Arthur requested that the players each give an individual presentation on the team's failures and where they could improve. Watson and three other players (
Mitchell Johnson,
James Pattinson, and
Usman Khawaja) failed to do so. As a result, the team management (including Arthur and captain
Michael Clarke, who was a team selector at the time) decided not to consider the four players for selection in the third Test match. Watson and his then-pregnant wife left India and returned home to Australia for the birth of their child, a contingency that had been in place before he was dropped. Following the series in India, Australia played back-to-back Ashes series in the
2013 English summer and the
2013–14 Australian summer. Watson played in both series, batting at number 3.
2015–2016 Shane Watson was named as one of the members of Australia's 15-man World Cup squad on 11 January 2015. He played in all but one of Australia's World Cup matches, as Australia went on to win the tournament. Watson had a disappointing start to his World Cup campaign, dismissed for a first ball
duck in Australia's first match of the tournament against
England, and dismissed for 23 against
New Zealand in a losing effort. As a result of his poor form, Watson was dropped for Australia's match against
Afghanistan, and was replaced by
James Faulkner. However, he was reinstated for Australia's next match against
Sri Lanka, scoring 67 off 41 balls, and taking 1/71 off 7 overs as Australia prevailed by 64 runs. In Australia's final group stage match, against
Scotland, Watson scored 24 runs from 23 balls and took 1/18 off three overs as Australia defeated Scotland by 7 wickets and qualified for the knockout stage. In Australia's quarter final match against
Pakistan, Watson was on the receiving end of a bowling spell from
Wahab Riaz which received praise from numerous cricketers. After being dropped by
Rahat Ali at square leg at 4 runs, Watson went on to score 64 not out from 66 balls as Australia recorded a 6 wicket victory with 97 balls to spare. Watson played in Australia's 95 run semi-final victory over
India, scoring 28 runs from 30 balls. Watson played in the
2015 Cricket World Cup Final, scoring 2 not out as Australia prevailed over New Zealand by 7 wickets, winning their fifth Cricket World Cup as a result. Watson was part of Australia's squad for their
2015 tour of England, which included the
2015 Ashes series. He played in the first Test match of the Ashes in Cardiff, but he failed to take any wickets with the ball or score many runs with the bat. He was dropped from the team for the rest of the series. In the following ODI series against England, Watson suffered a calf injury which ruled him out of the rest of the tour. After this injury, Watson decided to retire from Test cricket with the hope of continuing to play in the two shorter formats. On 31 January 2016, Watson was named T20I captain and became one of the few Australians to captain in all formats, he opened the innings after a long gap and scored 124*, which made several records, including becoming the first Australian batsman to score a century in all three formats of the game. Watson played for Australia in the
2016 World Twenty20 in March 2016 in India. Partway through the tournament, on 24 March, 14 years to the day since his international debut for Australia, Watson announced that he would retire from international cricket at the end of the tournament. Watson was the last remaining Australian player from Australia's dominant era in the early 2000s (having made his debut before
Shane Warne and
Glenn McGrath retired in 2007, usually seen as the end of Australia's dominant era). ==T20 franchise cricket==