‘You think you can hit me like that?’ – Narayan Jagadeesan recalls how he managed to enrage Shane Watson with a switch-hit

Narayan Jagadeesan, the Tamil Nadu cricketer, recently said how he managed to ruffle Australia’s Shane Watson to some extent. It happened in 2017 when Watson was a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Jagadeesan attended trials for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise.

Jagadeesan said that he pulled out the switch-hit while facing Watson and it raced away to the boundary. The stroke didn’t go down well with Watson and Jagadeesan quipped that the former Aussie all-rounder literally swore at him.

Thereafter, Watson ran in at full throttle to bowl at the 24-year-old. Jagadeesan made the revelations in a chat show Homerun with AV with sports commentator Arun Venugopal on his YouTube channel Gethist Creative.

Before Watson could take my head off, I walked out: Narayan Jagadeesan

“When Shane Watson was bowling to me, I played a switch-hit against him which went to the boundary. Watson was furious. He came up to me and said ‘what do you think of yourself? You think you can hit me like that?’ He literally swore at me,” Jagadeesan was quoted as saying.

“The next two balls, he steamed in with intent. As things panned out, the coach said it was the last set (of deliveries) at the nets. Before Watson could take my head off, I walked out of the nets!,” he stated.

In the very next year, the duo would be playing for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the three-time IPL champions. In 2018, Jagadeesan reminded Watson of what panned out in 2017.

“Oh yeah, I reminded him about it during my very first year. Initially, Watson couldn’t remember the incident, but when I told him ‘switch hit’, he instantly remembered. He was like, “hey, you were the guy”. I just said yes,” Jagadeesan added.

Despite being in the CSK, he is yet to make his debut in the tournament. MS Dhoni has been a stalwart for them ever since the 2008 edition and hence, Jagadeesan has had to warm the benches. The youngster has played 22 T20s, scoring 305 runs at an average of 23.46. He has also been a vital cog for the Dindigul Dragons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL).