Ex-Pakistan cricketer triggers controversy by suggesting Usman Khawaja batted “like a batsman from Bangladesh”
Khawaja top scored for Australia in their first innings with his 180-run knock at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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Usman Khawaja
Former Pakistani cricketer Basit Ali has triggered controversy by opining that Australia opener Usman Khawaja played a selfish knock against India in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Khawaja top scored for Australia in their first innings with his 180-run knock at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
“Usman Khawaja played like a batsman from Bangladesh. His approach was very timid, and I feel it was a selfish innings. You score 180 runs after playing 422 deliveries in this pitch. Only Green looked like a batter from Australia,” Ali said in a video posted on YouTube. Cameron Green had slammed his maiden Test ton and finished at 114.
Khawaja’s score was also the third-highest score by an Australian batsman in India. Simultaneously, his stay at the crease of 611 minutes is also the longest Test innings in India by an Australian. He surpassed Graham Yallop‘s 520 minutes (when he slammed 167 runs back in 1979 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata).
India vs Australia match recap
After Usman Khawaja’s 180, Cameron Green’s 114, and small contributions from other batters, Australia reached 480. India also had a flying start with openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill stitching 74 runs between them. Though Rohit couldn’t convert his good start into a huge knock, Gill did.
Gill slammed his maiden Test ton in India and his second overall century in red-ball cricket. But later he was dismissed by Nathan Lyon through lbw. India have so far reached 289 for the loss of three wickets.
Tomorrow, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja will resume their batting from 59* and 16* respectively. Kohli’s half-century came almost after 14 months; the last he scored in January 2022. If he continues batting like this on Day 4, he will end his century drought in Test after over three years (the last century of 136 runs he scored back in 2019 against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens).
The Test can end in a draw if wickets don’t fall quickly. India will win the series then as they have already retained the trophy 2-1. If India win or draw this Test, then they’ll become the second team after Australia to secure a berth at the ICC World Test Championship final, which is slated to take place in June this year at The Oval.
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Gouri Das
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