Watson excited by Royals mentoring role

Shane Watson wants to play a role in the development of the careers of Rajasthan Royals players Steven Smith, James Faulkner and Ajinkya Rahane.

Speaking to the Times of India, Watson expressed happiness over the development of the trio and said it was exciting for the Royals to have the quality of the likes of Smith, Faulkner and Rahane.

Australian leg-spinning legend Shane Warne guided Rajasthan to their first-ever IPL title in 2008 when Watson was still developing his game but the allrounder still played a huge part in the Royals winning the tournament.

He scored 472 runs at 47.2 and picked up 17 wickets to lead them to the title and credits Warne for his growth as a cricketer.

Now Watson is relishing the responsibility of doing the same for the Royals youngsters.

“I think it's a great thing for the franchise to have quality players like Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith and James Faulkner in the Royals,” Watson said.

“It is very exciting that a couple of young Aussies are coming through. Shane Warne has been incredible for my career and hopefully I can be of help to these young guys in the similar lines of what Warne had been for me.”

Watson also said Rajasthan’s squad for this edition of the IPL has been its strongest ever, refuting arguments that they were lacking a quality spinner in their squad.

With Rahane, Smith and Watson himself in the top-order and the likes of Deepak Hooda, Karun Nair and Sanju Samson coming through, the Royals have a very strong batting line-up but the lack of any international spin bowlers could be a concern.

Almost every side has a spinner who has played for his respective national team barring Rajasthan, who have opted to rely on the 43-year-old Pravin Tambe and youngsters like Ankit Sharma and Rahul Tewatia.

Watson chooses to look at the glass as half-full though, suggesting there is enough quality in the Rajasthan spinning ranks.

“For me this is the strongest squad we have had. We have had some incredible squads over the years,” he said.

“This year, the support staff has done extremely well to get this squad in place. We have depth all round and options in high quality.

“Coming into this season, I was very excited with the options, and we have been playing some very good cricket.

“I don't think we lack in the spin department. We have some great spinners in the side. Pravin Tambe has been doing quite well for a few years.

“There are a few youngsters too, like Ankit Sharma. He is as good a left-arm orthodox spinner as I have ever seen. He reads batsmen incredibly well.”

Rajasthan have 14 points from 11 games and another win should see them seal a play-offs berth. They take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday before ending their group stage with matches against Chennai and Kolkata.