After getting Bumrah-ed in the Gorder-Baskar Trophy, Usman Khawaja made a phenomenal comeback in the longest format of the game, making headlines at Galle and putting his side in a strong position to win the ongoing Test match against Sri Lanka.
Usman scored his maiden double century and became the first Australian batter to score a double hundred in Sri Lanka. Moreover, the opening batsman became one of the oldest players to score a double hundred. Overall, he is the second oldest Australian to achieve the milestone after the legendary Don Bradman.
Reacting to this achievement, Khawaja said that the coach Andrew McDonald always wanted him to perform in this Sri Lankan tour.
“It’s been a tough summer – I had a lot of people telling me how I should go about my career and what I should do from here on in,”
“But Andrew McDonald, even last year, said to me: ‘I don’t care what happens, just make sure you’re on the Sri Lankan tour. I want you on the Sri Lankan tour.’
“I’m not here for anyone but the team. I’m not just playing cricket because I’ve got a gluttony to score lots of runs. Century No. 16, 17, 18 is not going to make a difference to my life. I’m going to finish this game, and I’ve got a beautiful family. I’ll try to give back to the community as much as I can. Hopefully I can score runs and contribute to the team.”
Khawaja now has 16 Test centuries under his belt and 5 have come in Asia which is not a bad feat at all. Talking about the two-halves of his career, Khawaja said:
“It’s a contrast of two halves – my career in the subcontinent,” Khawaja said. “There’s pre-Dubai, post-Dubai. There were some low times – my wife Rachel was here with me [in 2016, when he’d been dropped mid-series in Sri Lanka], and we had so many of those tough times. No one ever sees that. Everyone sees the good stuff.”
Talking about the ongoing game, Australia is in the strongest position to win this game as the visitors scored 654 runs in the first innings before declaring the innings.
Khawaja was the top scorer with 232 before his name and the stand-in skipper Steven Smith scored 141 runs and completed his 10,000 Test runs as well.
“But you have to take the good stuff when you get it. It doesn’t come around very much. We had one of the greatest players to play the game – Steven Smith – get to, what was that, 35 Test hundreds? As great as he is, he’s only done it 35 times. That puts things into perspective.”
It is eminent to mention that Australia has already qualified for the final of the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship. The side will face South Africa in the final of the showpiece event in June. Last year, Australia had beaten India in the final of the WTC.
