Usman Khawaja has come under fire after comments he made in the wake of Australia’s nightmare outing during the second Test against India.
The Aussies were blown off the park in Dehli on the third day of the second Test as the line-up capitulated to be all out for a measly 113 runs in the second innings.
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The horror showing saw the Aussies collapse within 90 minutes after entering the day’s play in a dominant position of 1/61.
But a reliance on trying to continually sweep the Indian spin attack brought about their undoing as Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin tore the heart out of the visitors.
It meant India only required 115 runs to secure victory and an unassailable 2-0 lead for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Khawaja was the first to depart with his wicket falling late on day two as he attempted to paddle a sweep around the corner only for the ball to lollipop to the fielder.
Making an appearance on SEN’s podcast with Gerard Whateley and Bharat Sundaresan, the left-handed batter attempted to downplay what had transpired during the Test.
Khawaja’s comments raised eyebrows and ruffled feathers, but none stood out more than five words in particular when he said “it’s just how it goes”.
“Sometimes that’s just how it goes. We were just out-skilled, we didn’t execute well enough today unfortunately. We executed quite well in the first innings, we just couldn’t do it for the whole game,” Khawaja said.
“There’ll always be outside noise but at the end of the day we’re out here trying to win games of cricket for Australia.
“You have to pick your poison, one way or another. You can get out blocking or you can get out trying to execute shots we’ve been practising. That’s just the way it goes.
“If you’re looking short sighted, it sucks, but we’ve still played a lot of good cricket over a long period of time.”
The comments didn’t go down well with Whateley as he blasted the attitude and mindset of the Aussie opener, taking aim at those five words in particular.
“They will have to come up with better than “it’s just how it goes,” Whateley said.
Fellow SEN commentator Adam Collins also called out Khawaja over his nonchalant attitude towards the carnage that had just unfolded.
“I don’t know if that’s reading the room,” Collins said.
“They’re laughing at us now.
“That bit about, ‘There’ll be outside noise’. I don’t know if that’s reading the room particularly well from Usman. I acknowledge he is one of the most mature cricketers in the world at the moment and he is entitled to his view and it should be respected, but the outside noise is going to be there from everywhere and to ignore it would be a mistake.
“Even that line about picking one’s poison. What’s the starting point – that they are going to be outdone by Ashwin and Jadeja and they just have to pick the way they are going to get out? I don’t know if that’s the right starting point at this level when you’re the No. 1 side in the world. It feels like there is a mindset issue here in addition to the chasm here on these surfaces.”
The remarks from Khawaja echo a similar sentiment to Glenn Maxwell’s remarks after Australia were knocked out of the T20 World Cup.
Australia were knocked out on run rate after winning four games, losing one and seeing their clash with England rained out.
But the bitterly disappointing result didn’t resonate with Maxwell who shrugged it off like water off a duck’s back.
“You can‘t dwell on it. I think you move on pretty quickly,” he said.
“We‘ve got a one day series against England probably 24 hours later and then we’ve got the Big Bash and then we’ve got four day cricket.
“Cricket never stops so you don‘t get time to dwell. Maybe when you retire you think back to it would have been nice to win that but it doesn’t mean anything.
“I wish we had of won but we didn‘t.”
