Usman Khawaja’s long and belated journey to India is done. Now for the challenge of making runs in a country where he’s never played a Test match.
A few days after joining the Australian team at their Bengaluru training base, Khawaja has spoken for the first time about the saga around his delayed departure for India while waiting for his passport and visa to be returned.
Usman Khawaja made an ODI century in Delhi in 2019. Credit:AP
“It was what it was – I just wanted to get over there to be honest,” Khawaja told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald from Bengaluru. “There’s a good Sydney flight straight from Sydney to Bangalore and I missed that unfortunately, which sucked.
“It was long, I had to go down to Melbourne and then from Melbourne I got delayed going three hours from Sydney to Melbourne, so it took me five or six hours to get there.
“Then I got delayed again from Melbourne to Delhi by four hours again, so just delays after delays after delays. Still a little bit groggy from the flight. Oh well, I’m here now!”
As part of a seasoned Australian Test side ranked the world’s best, Khawaja has strong belief in the team’s capabilities, but balances that with knowledge about how difficult a Test assignment India will be.
“There’s definitely a different feel,” he said. “There’s no guarantees in this game, but at least there’s a bit more maturity particularly in the batting, and more maturity in the bowling.
“We’ve learnt a lot over the last 10 years, particularly the types of wickets we can get and how we think we can perform and go out and win Test matches out here. It feels like we’re in a better spot than before, but it’s always going to be tough.”
A tourist in 2013 – when he was one of four players suspended from the Mohali Test match – and 2017, Khawaja sat through both series without playing a game. When he finally did get a run in India, in a white-ball series in 2019, Khawaja made centuries in Ranchi and Delhi.
In 2013, the Australians were mauled 4-0 despite winning every toss. Four years later they won resoundingly in Pune, only to see the advantage squandered in Bengaluru, Ranchi and Dharamshala as India prevailed 2-1.
Each time, Ravichandran Ashwin was a huge threat to the Australians. It is arguable that his skill against left-handers was one of the reasons why Khawaja was not chosen by the tour selectors. More than half of Ashwin’s 449 Test wickets – 226 to be precise – have been left-handers.
Khawaja has never played a Test in India.Credit:Getty
“Ashwin is a gun,” Khawaja said. “He’s very skilful, he’s got a lot of tricky little variations, he uses the crease quite well too. If you asked me the same question when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer a lot of things because I didn’t really learn about how to face what off-spinners are doing.
“But it’s one of those really good challenges. The wicket’s going to turn here at some point, whether day one, day three or day four, and he’s going to be in the game and bowl a lot of overs. So it’s all about figuring out how I’m going to play against him, how I’m going to score runs against him, what he might do. If you bat a long time against him, he’s going to change his game plans against you.
“He’s not the kind of guy who’ll do the same thing over and over, he’s going to try to work you out. So I’m looking forward to it. Four Test matches is a long time, so hopefully I can do alright and score runs for my team, but you know what, it’s always fun. Subcontinent, playing against spin is some of the most fun you’ll have in terms of finding a way to get in and score runs, it’s quite rewarding.“
One thing experience has taught Khawaja is that it isn’t quite as simple as saying it’s great to bat against the new ball in South Asia before the spinners come on. If the pitch is turning and spinners get the new ball, opening can be very hazardous.
“If it’s a good wicket, the new ball is probably the easiest time to bat,” he said. “But as soon as the wicket deteriorates in India and you’ve got spinners bowling with a new ball, that’s probably the hardest time to bat anywhere.
“When we train, the new ball on spinning wickets is always the hardest time. People assume opening the batting is the best time to bat in the subcontinent, it is when it’s flat, but it’s not when it’s spinning when there’s so much variation with that new ball. Once it softens up it gets easier to predict what it’s going to do.”
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