Workhorse Khawaja keeps his cool
USMAN Khawaja has a habit of being able to stay calm when the world is buzzing around him.
At times that’s prompted critics to insinuate he’s not fully switched on, but Khawaja’s measured outlook to batting is proving a blessing.
It’s been more than 30 years since Australia went two Tests in a home summer without a batsman scoring more than 80, but Khawaja’s fighting 72 on day four in Perth was worth a hundred.
By his own admission Khawaja had been completely suffocated by India’s quicks in his first three digs of the series, almost unable to score.
But rather than sweat over a solution as to where his next run was coming from, the lefthander gave every impression he’d barely given his three failures post knee surgery a second thought.
Khawaja averages 42.8 in Test cricket by staying Zen, and although yesterday’s innings was his slowest ever Test 50 by a whopping 34 runs, he never seemed phased.
For any other player you might think he’s talking in clichés, but Khawaja is one batsman who really seems to go with the flow as he negated an unpredictable pitch to drive Australia to set India an imposing 287-run target.
“Cricket’s a funny game. It goes in circles. I scored a lot of runs this year,” said Khawaja.
“I scored a lot of runs in first-class cricket, over in Glamorgan (English county cricket), Aussie A, and then in the UAE. There’s going to be a couple of innings here and there where I don’t. That’s just part of the game.”
Khawaja is known for his elegance, but Adam Gilchrist put yesterday’s match-defining knock down to “batting ugly”.
“He was a bit more fluid in the UAE, but unlike a lot of players in this more modern age – and perhaps it’s T20 cricket and white ball cricket that’s created it – he’s playing an innings that we don’t see a lot, where they’re just prepared to bat ugly… to dig in and do whatever it takes,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket.