‘Came out wearing that long-sleeved sweater’ - Justin Langer explicates bizarre theory behind Usman Khawaja's first innings failure in WTC final

With the World Test Championship final (WTC) 2023 underway, India won the toss and elected to field first. Bowling first, the Indian team got off to a brilliant start as Mohammed Siraj struck early and sent veteran batter Usman Khawaja packing for a duck. 

However, the Aussies did stabilise their innings, thanks to magnificent knocks by Steve Smith and Travis Head. Despite a rocky start to the innings due to Khawaja’s dismissal, Australia made a resilient comeback.

Khawaja was sent back to the pavilion by Siraj in the fourth over of the first innings after a faint tickle off the bat, saw the delivery land straight into the hands of wicketkeeper KS Bharat.

Seeing Khawaja’s dismissal, former Australian cricketer Justin Langer, who was on air during that point, opined that Khawaja’s dismissal was related to him wearing a long-sleeve sweater.

"He came out wearing a long-sleeve sweater. I felt if I had a long-sleeve sweater, especially early, you need to be sharp – I never felt right. And he came out wearing that long-sleeved sweater today and didn’t get going. He will be disappointed to be out in this first half an hour," Justin Langer said on air. 

India managed a score of 151 runs at the end of Day 2

Through brilliant knocks of Smith and Head and a late push by Alex Carey, Australia managed to notch up 469 runs on the board. Furthermore, the Aussies followed it up with a sensational display with the ball as well.

Coming into bat, India got off to the worst of starts as Shubman Gill and skipper Rohit Sharma were sent packing quite early on. Furthermore, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were dismissed cheaply as well. Veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja did play a brilliant knock under pressure. The 34-year-old amassed 48 runs in 51 deliveries.

By the time stumps were called on Day 2, Ajinkya Rahane and KS Bharat stood at the crease. Rahane was unbeaten on 29 runs in 71 deliveries, whereas Bharat sat on 5* runs.