Former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer hailed Usman Khawaja for continuing his purple patch in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series against India. The left-hander scored an unbeaten knock of 104 runs off 251 balls on the opening day of the fourth Test match at the Narender Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday.
With the help of Khawaja’s patient knock, Australia ended Day 1 in a commanding position at 255-4. Khawaja had returned with scores of 81 runs in the first innings at Delhi and then played a crucial knock of 60 in the first essay at Indore. The left-hander has so far scored 257 runs in the series, which is the highest in the series.
The southpaw looked at home while playing against the Indian spinners and there was also not a lot of help for the home team. However, Khawaja didn’t get carried away and showed all the patience to score his 14th Test century.
Wasim Jaffer said on ESPN Cricinfo, “Usman Khawaja, since that first Test match, has been the standout batter in the series. He showed his class and played beautifully. He played the whole day for his hundred and you’ve got to give it to his patience and persistence.”
On the other hand, former Australian skipper Ian Chappell was perplexed by Indian spinners tactics of bowling around the wicket to left-handers.
“One thing I can’t understand is India’s desire to come around the wicket the whole time to a left-hander,” Chappell elaborated. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me. You speak to all the good left-handers that I’ve spoken to, and they say that right-arm over the wicket is the toughest guy to face. It’s okay every now and again for a bit of a change around the wicket.
Chappell slammed the Indian spinners for bowling at Khawaja’s strength, which is on the pads.
“Maybe around the wicket works more in England. But in India, ridiculous, particularly to a player like Usman Khawaja, whose great strength is his onside, and we saw that today. Why would you angle the ball into his pads when that’s exactly what he wants? Khawaja looked at ease the whole time. India haven’t come up with a solution to Khawaja’s batting, and it’s really starting to hurt them.”
Khawaja added 85 runs with Cameron Green and the pair added 54 runs in the last nine overs, with the latter doing the lion share of the scoring.
