Australian cricketers had stopped celebration with champagne so that Usman Khawaja could join them.
Australia captain Pat Cummins got praised for his gesture towards teammate Usman Khawaja after they retained the Ashes by winning the series 4-0 on Sunday (January 16). Australia won the fifth Test by 146 runs in Hobart as the match ended in just three days.
Khawaja had stepped aside from team celebration after the Aussie cricketers started popping champagne bottles on the stage at Hobart's Bellerive Oval. Cummins noticed it and he asked Khawaja to join them for the celebrations while asking others to not shower him with champagne due to his religious belief.
"Usman is obviously Muslim, so he doesn't like the champagne being thrown," Cummins said. He further added, "I just made sure he got up there and no champagne was thrown."
Khawaja responded to the gesture on Twitter and wrote that the clip shows the boys have his back and the team is heading in the right direction. "If this video doesn't show you that the boys have my back, I don't know what will.
"They stopped their normal champagne celebrations so I could rejoin. Inclusivity in the game and our values as a sport are so important. I feel like we are trending in the right direction," the tweet read.
The 35-year-old made his Test return in the series with a twin hundred during the fourth Test match at Sydney Cricket Ground.