NEW DELHI: From being punished for not completing his 'homework' to securing the highest score on the opening day of the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, life seems to have come full circle for Australian batter Usman Khawaja.
It was during Australia tour of India in 2013 that Khawaja and three of his teammates — Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and James Pattinson — was suspended for not completing the homework given by then-coach Mickey Arthur. The homework-gate saga meant he missed out on a chance to don Australian whites 10 years ago.
The Pakistan-born Khawaja once again toured India four years later only to be dropped from the playing XI for the first Test in Pune to accommodate the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell. He eventually went back home without featuring in any of the three Tests that followed
Those missed chances must have crossed his mind when he was named in the Australian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy scheduled to be held in India. The fear of missing out once again must have grown manifold when a visa delay left him stranded Down Under with his teammates flying out for Bengaluru for their short camp ahead of the four-match series.
But this time, the script turned out to be different for him. The 36-year-old Khawaja not only found his way to the playing XI of both Tests but also made the second match a memorable outing for himself and the team. With wickets falling at one end once opener David Warner was dismissed for 15 after Australia opted to bat at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Friday, the southpaw held his own, scoring 81 off 125 balls to see his team to safety.
Khawaja played sweeps and reverse sweeps to unsettle India's bowling line-up, especially against offie Ravichandran Ashwin to resurrect the innings after the Aussies were reduced to 3/91 despite a decent start. In the end, a well-timed reverse sweep off Ravindra Jadeja led to his downfall but it took KL Rahul to hold a blinder at cover point to do that.Peter Handscomb then made an unbeaten 72 and skipper Pat Cummins chipped in with a useful 33 as the visitors put 263 on the scoreboard before being bowled out in 78.4 overs.
Khawaja believes the total is good given the fact that Australia have played three spinners in the form of Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann. "I don't know a par score until India bats on it. I feel like 260 is pretty good but we are going to have to wait and see tomorrow (Saturday) what India get. They're very good in their own conditions. I think now we have three spinners in the team, especially on that wicket, it is going to be challenging, just like their spinners were very challenging."
Despite him playing Tests on Indian soil almost 10 years after first touring the country with the national team, Khawaja has enough experience of playing in the subcontinent. He has played a lot of red-ball cricket in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and UAE.
He also played multi-day matches in India while captaining Australia A on the 2015 tour of India. He had scored in bulks while playing nine ODIs here. The batter had also represented his country in the T20 World Cup India hosted in 2016. Besides, he had played for Pune franchise in the Indian Premier League as well.
Despite all those past laurels, the maiden Test fifty will always remain close to his heart, especially after the twin failures in the Nagpur Test where he could not reach double figures in both innings.
"I didn't get a chance to play the first game. I only faced seven balls for the game. So there was no real difference in the plans. I just play by feel. I play what I think is right for the wicket when I go out. I don't go out there thinking I want to play a certain way. I just feel how the bowlers are trying to bowl to me and then I read the game from there. So, it's as simple as that. There's no difference. And that's pretty much what I did today," said Khawaja on his Test outings in the country so far.
Meanwhile, for the hosts, pacer Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers claiming 4/60 in 14.4 overs. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja bagged three wickets each while Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel went wicketless.India were 21 for no loss at stumps with skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul unbeaten on 13 and 4 runs respectively.
