By Daniel Brettig
Pakistan-born Usman Khawaja was unable to join his Australian teammates on either of their two flights to India over the past 36 hours as he is still awaiting a visa from the Indian government.
The touring players and support staff departed Australia for India and their initial training base in Bengaluru via two separate flights on Tuesday and Wednesday but Khawaja was not present on either, as his passport and visa had not yet returned from the India high commission.
Players slated to tour India have had their visas in process since early January, leaving Khawaja as the only member of the touring party not to be approved in time.
Khawaja posted on his Instagram account early Wednesday afternoon to indicate he was yet to depart: “Me waiting for my Indian Visa like… #stranded #dontleaveme #standard #anytimenow”
Sources close to the Australian team told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday that all parties were hopeful of a resolution in time for Khawaja to join teammates later this week.
Khawaja is booked to travel from Melbourne to Bengaluru on Thursday with a selection of other support staff, pending the confirmation of his travel documents to make the trip.
It’s not the first time Khawaja has been delayed in his travel to India, having previously required special intervention to ensure he could play for New South Wales at the Twenty20 Champions League in 2011.
On other trips, Khawaja’s visa has arrived later than for other teammates and staff, but not to the point of missing the national team’s scheduled travel day.
The visa process for entry to India customarily asks applicants whether they or their parents are of Pakistani origin.
Khawaja has previously made Test tours of India in 2013 and 2017, although he was not selected for a match in either case. This time around he is set to tour as Australia’s leading batter of the past 12 months, winning the Shane Warne trophy for Test player of the year on Monday night.
At the time, Khawaja spoke with great feeling about how much “love” he had felt from the Australian public after being recalled to the Test team in January last year – ensuring he would be retained by sculpting twin centuries against England at the SCG.
“The love I’ve gotten over the last year, I could never ever imagined getting that kind of love,” Khawaja said at the Australian cricket awards.
“I finally feel like not only my teammates, but Australia as a country and as a cricketing organisation is finally respecting me as the person, the beliefs I have.
“I love where we’ve been and where we’re going. I love where we’ve come over the last 10 to 15 years and hopefully over the next 10 to 15 years we can be even further.”
Cricket Australia declined to comment.
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