Australian batsman Usman Khawaja who moved down under from Pakistan in the early 1990s became the first Muslim cricketer ever to represent Australia when he debuted at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in 2011, in the Ashes Test.

The southpaw in his recent interaction with ESPNCricinfo made some shocking revelation about racism in Australian cricket he faced when he had started playing cricket.

“When I was younger in Australia, the amount of time I got told I was never going to play for Australia, I'm not the right skin color was immense. I'd get told I don't fit the team, and they wouldn't pick me. That was the mentality, but now it's starting to shift,” Khawaja said.

The 34-year-old, who has played 44 Test matches for Australia was born in Islamabad, Pakistan but his family moved to Australia when he was five. The batsman then talked about how after his involvement in the Australian team, his family has turned into Aussie fans.

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“When I started being more involved in cricket, people with subcontinent heritage in Australia came up to me and said, "we're so happy to see you at the top. Seeing someone like you, we feel we've got a part in the Australian team, and we support the Australian team. We didn't do it before, and we do it now,” the left-hand batsman said.

“And that kept happening over and over and over again. The more that happened, I realized my background does matter, and it does make a difference. And then I realized from my childhood it probably took me a while to support Australia. I didn't really support Australia when I first went (from Pakistan) because I didn't really get it,” he added.

Khawaja has represented Australia in 44 Tests and 40 ODIs with 2287 and 1554 runs respectively.

(With India Today Inputs)