Usman Khawaja couldn’t remember when was the last time he smiled so much after scoring a Test century. But at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday late afternoon, the Australian batter did have a broad smile on his face as he braved the sweltering conditions and batted throughout the day to bring up his 14th Test ton - the first in the ongoing series against India.
Amid loud cheers from the spectators, Khawaja had a low-key celebration as he just raised his bat in the air and hugged Cameron Green. But by his own admission, the emotions were flying high.
“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 said.
Having guided Australia to 255 for four on the opening day of the series-deciding Test, a rather emotional Khawaja remembered those days when he was told that he could not play spin. Khawaja had previously toured India twice - in 2013 and 2017 - with the Australian Test team, but did not feature in the playing eleven and had to carry drinks.
“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 last 11 outings in Asia since 2018, Khawaja has managed to maintain an average of 75, and better assessment of the conditions and reading the spinners well seem to have done 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 well in Karachi, Lahore and Galle last year, he wanted to score 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 said with a smile.
Understandably, “there was a lot of emotion” and Khawaja “just never expected this to happen”, but he was not concerned about the extreme weather conditions. His unbeaten 104 off 251 balls showed his character, but the batter did not want to highlight too much about the challenges and indicated that he thrives in ‘hot weather’ conditions.
“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 said, “I felt like I could bat normally, hence why I just batted and didn’t take too many risks…”
Despite some of his teammates struggling to play spin, Khawaja hammered two half-centuries in New Delhi and Indore. Talking about his approach, the 36-year-old Pakistan-born batter said, “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 just played two sweep shots - an absolute favourite - on the first day, and when he walks out to bat on Friday, Khawaja will be man on a mission.
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