Australia’s Shane Watson is Twenty20 cricket’s top-ranked allrounder and his skipper George Bailey says Watson has the ability to dominate the World T20 and be the player of the tournament.

Australia’s opening Group B clash against Ireland on Wednesday in Colombo could turn out to be a cakewalk if Watson and Dave Warner fire at the top of the order, like they did as they compiled an Australian-record partnership of 111 against Pakistan in Dubai on September 10.

And Watson’s pace-bowling skills also have the potential to run through Ireland’s batting lineup.

Dual Allan Border Medallist Watson knows it, Bailey knows it, the Irish know it.

“He absolutely is (potentially player of the tournament),” Bailey said on Tuesday.

“If Shane Watson has a man-of-the-series type tournament, that plays a huge part in how well Australia goes and he knows that.

“He embraces that. Any allrounder embraces that challenge of being involved in the game as often as they can for as long as they can.

“But there’s plenty of good cricketers in this tournament.”

Watson, a former player of the tournament in the Indian Premier League T20 competition, says he’s putting personal goals to one side.

“I don’t think about that personally,” says the 31-year-old Watson who averages 27 with the bat and 22 with the ball in 30 T20 Internationals.

“What I’m thinking about is I know if I’m able to perform throughout this tournament, especially with my role in the team being an opening batsman and bowling the certain overs that I do, I know if I have a good tournament it’s certainly going to help the framework of our team.

“If Dave Warner and myself have a very good tournament, we’re giving ourselves the best chance of being able to set a great platform and we know that we’re going to have more chance of having a lot of success throughout this tournament.

“I don’t have those personal goals of being the player of the tournament and those sorts of things.

“It is just hoping that I can have enough influence on the games that I play that it’s enough for us to be able to achieve success.”