Guitar helps Shane Watson to be focussed and control emotions

From the time Australian opener Shane Watson walked into a store and picked up a guitar, he has found it to be the best way to relax and keep himself under control when out of the squad due to injury.

Watson has been hooked since he first bought a guitar at a Surfers Paradise store at 24 and felt that "thrill" of strumming a song.

During his downtime this summer, he's been playing an Eric Clapton song called Crossroads over and over, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Watson often loses himself in music and searches beyond the lyrics to the stories and history of the songs. Mostly on plane trips, Watson has read books on Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, the Rolling Stones and the history of the blues.

"The music I've really got into is blues music. I think there's so much feeling and passion involved in blues music. I've been reading a lot on blues musicians from America and how they had it very tough in their life, and music was the thing that got their mind away from the slavery that they were experiencing," Watson said.

"It's really been the music that hit home to me the most. It really has so much emotion and feeling in it. I play all the time because it's a way to continue to develop, I guess, my feelings and emotions," he said.

"It's the best thing I've done in my life for a number of reasons. There was a time previous to that, that cricket was my whole and sole existence. I knew I needed some balance in my life. At times cricket was absolutely everything. I had nothing outside of cricket," Watson said.

"I needed a way to escape from that. The music was something I absolutely loved. That's been a big part to me, to discover things outside my obsession with being the best cricketer I can possibly be," he added.

Music was also his refuge when he was troubled by injury. All up, he had 12 problems in six years that harmed his development and unfortunately earned him a "soft" reputation.