AUSTRALIA all-rounder Shane Watson says he has lost the “fight” to continue his Test cricket career after announcing yesterday his decision to follow captain Michael Clarke into retirement at the age of 34.

Watson won 59 Test caps, the last of which came in the opening match of this summer’s Ashes at Cardiff where England won by 169 runs, and admitted he reached the decision to quit with a hint of regret.

Cricket Australia revealed Watson’s decision on its website on Sunday, coinciding with Watson being ruled out of the rest of the one-day international series by a calf injury sustained in the tourists’ victory at Lord’s on Saturday.

Watson said: “It’s been a decision that hasn’t come about lightly, over the past month especially, but I just know it’s the right time to be able to move on and still, hopefully, play the shorter formats of the game.

“I just know that I’ve given everything I possibly can to get the best out of myself. I just think it’s time to move on. 

“I don’t have that real fight in me, especially for Test cricket knowing the lengths physically I have to go to, and mentally and technically as well, to be able to get back to my best again in Test cricket.

“I haven’t achieved certainly all the things I dreamed of achieving in Test cricket — average 50 with the bat and in the 20s with the ball. 

“That’s obviously the dream as an all-rounder to achieve and obviously I didn’t get anywhere near that but I do know I gave it everything I possibly could to be able to get the best out of myself. 

“That’s what I’m most proud of.”

A series of injuries in recent years had hampered Watson’s progress but he insisted he had not started to consider retirement from Test cricket until this summer’s Ashes tour, when he failed to regain his place after the opening match.

Watson added: “It’s really been over the past month, when things haven’t turned out to plan, that I knew it was getting close to the right time.

“Over the last couple of days there was a lot of clarity (for me) of what the right decision was. I just know that I’ve given everything I possibly can to get the best out of myself.”

His Test career ends with a haul of 3,731 runs at 35.19, including four centuries, two of which came in Ashes contests. 

With the ball, fast-medium bowler Watson took 75 wickets at 33.68.