Khawaja batted brilliantly on Day 1 of the fourth Test against India in Ahmedabad.
Opening the innings, the southpaw remained unbeaten on 104 at the close of play on Day 1, propelling the visitors to a dominant position at 255/4.
Speaking after the day’s play, Khawaja expressed his delight on hitting a Test century on Indian soil, having carried the drinks on previous two tours.
“I don’t think I have ever smiled so much on getting a century, there was emotion in it. I have done two (Test) tours of India before (2013 and 2017). Carried the drinks for eight Test matches before I got a chance here,” Usman Khawaja said.
With this knock, the 36-year-old also heaved a sigh of relief as he was being told previously that he can’t play spin.
“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.
“It’s just nice to go out there and tick off a hundred in India which was something if you asked me five years ago if you told me that I would think you were crazy. There was a lot of emotion, I just never expected this to happen,” he remarked.
When asked if he agreed with the perception in Australian cricket that he couldn’t play spin, the stylish left-hander replied: “Maybe to some extent. But think it was a self-fulfilling prophecy in its own way. People start saying that then perception is reality. Anytime I got out to spin, people were like ‘you can’t play spin’. I probably started believing it myself.”
Usman Khawaja also rued how he never got the desired support in the early days of his career.
“I didn’t really get the support from the people around me at the time. I didn’t feel like the team really supported me. I didn’t feel like the coaching staff and selectors really supported me through that journey. It just made it so hard,” he said.
“Whether I was or wasn’t, yes I’m a better player of spin now, no doubt about that, I have more shots, better defence. But I didn’t really get the opportunity to learn at that early stage.”
So how did he turn the tables? “Fortunately enough, I am quite stubborn so went out of my own way to learn, then we had a couple of ‘A’ tours here in India which helped a lot. Had to go back and figure it out all by myself.”
(With PTI Inputs)