Usman Khawaja couldn’t bear in mind when was the final time he smiled a lot after scoring a Test century. But on the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday late afternoon, the Australian batter did have a broad smile on his face as he braved the sweltering circumstances and batted all through the day to deliver up his 14th Test ton – the primary within the ongoing collection towards India.
Amid loud cheers from the spectators, Khawaja had a low-key celebration as he simply raised his bat within the air and hugged Cameron Green. But by his personal admission, the feelings had been flying excessive.
“I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much on getting a century. There was emotion in it, I’ve done two tours of India before, carried the drinks for eight Test matches before I got a chance here,” Khawaja stated.
Having guided Australia to 255 for 4 on the opening day of the series-deciding Test, a quite emotional Khawaja remembered these days when he was instructed that he couldn’t play spin.
“Throughout the middle of my career I got told I couldn’t play spin and that’s why I never got an opportunity to play in India…”
In the final 11 outings in Asia since 2018, Khawaja has managed to keep up a median of 75, and higher evaluation of the circumstances and studying the spinners effectively appear to have achieved the trick for the Aussie batter.
“I did feel like that monkey went off my back when I scored that hundred in Dubai (against Pakistan in 2018). But that was Dubai, I wanted to do it in the subcontinent, so this is very special…”
Though he fared effectively in Karachi, Lahore and Galle final 12 months, he needed to attain a ton in India.
“I got an opportunity to play in a white-ball series a few years ago and was Man-of-the-Series, got an opportunity here again with the red ball. It’s just nice to go out there and tick off a hundred in India which was something if you told me five years ago I’d think you were crazy,” he stated with a smile.
Understandably, “there was a lot of emotion” and Khawaja “just never expected this to happen”, however he was not involved concerning the excessive climate circumstances. His unbeaten 104 off 251 balls confirmed his character, however the batter didn’t wish to spotlight an excessive amount of concerning the challenges and indicated that he thrives in ‘hot weather’ circumstances.
“The heat is fine. If you ask the boys, I’m very good in the heat but very bad in the cold. You never see a man wear more vests in a cricket game than me,” he laughed.
“Out there I thought it was alright, the wicket was a lot better, the conditions were a lot nicer than the first few games. It was just a nicer batting wicket, it wasn’t spinning much, the stumps felt in play and we have come from three-day games in the first Tests so there was a little bit of a change of tack,” he stated, “I felt like I could bat normally, hence why I just batted and didn’t take too many risks…”
Despite a few of his teammates struggling to play spin, Khawaja hammered two half-centuries in New Delhi and Indore. Talking about his strategy, the 36-year-old Pakistan-born batter stated, “I just kept grinding away, I built partnerships that way. I just put my ego away, a few times they brought mid-on and mid-off up. I really wanted to hit them back over their heads like I normally do, but I thought I’d just keep grinding away and see how far we get.”
He simply performed two sweep photographs – an absolute favorite – on the primary day, and when he walks out to bat on Friday, Khawaja might be man on a mission.
Source web site: sportstar.thehindu.com
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