Got told I couldn't play spin and that's why I never got opportunity to play in India: Usman Khawaja

Australia opener Usman Khawaja has said that he didn’t get an opportunity to play in India as he was told that he is inefficient to play spin. In the fourth Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Khawaja impressed cricket fans, notching up his maiden Test century against India. 

With his fearless batting approach, the veteran got hold of Indian bowlers and scored 180 runs. He also exuded confidence against the Indian spin attack, with his fabulous batting technique. Against the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, the 36-year-old batter looked solid and played some fine shots. With Cameron Green, he stitched a 208-run partnership which helped his team to be in a commanding position in the game.

As per NDTV, Khawaja disclosed that he didn’t get a chance to play for his team in India earlier as he was said that he couldn’t play spin well.

"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," said the Aussie opener.

The batter further said that surrounded by these kinds of talks about him, he started accepting the fact that he is not a good player of spin.

"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."

The southpaw also added that during the early days of his career, he didn’t receive support from selectors and coaching staff. However, relying on his strong-willed attitude, he sharpened his batting skills to tackle spin.

"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."

"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. 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," concluded Khawaja.

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