IND vs AUS: Usman Khawaja becomes fourth Australian opener to score 150+ runs in a Test innings in India

Australia opener Usman Khawaja has been brilliant in the fourth and final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Despite two early wickets of Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, the 36-year-old kept cool and helped Australia be in the driver’s seat against a quality Indian bowling lineup.

Notably, he has batted very well throughout the course of the series but in the fourth Test, the cricketer joined the elite list of Australian openers who managed to score 150+ runs in a Test match in India. Jim Burke was the first Australian opener to do so in 1956 in Mumbai, which was followed by Graham Yallot in 1979 in Kolkata. Matthew Hayden was the last cricketer to achieve this feat (203 runs in the 2001 Kolkata Test) until Khawaja joined the list and became the first player in over two decades to achieve this feat.

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

Interestingly, even though Usman Khawaja has been one of the most consistent performers for Australia in the recent past, he never got an opportunity to play Test cricket in India. However, in the ongoing series, he has been called up and eventually managed to prove himself by batting brilliantly in the middle.

Now, when he was asked why he never got an opportunity to play Test cricket in India, the veteran batter revealed that for a long part of his career, he was told that he can’t play spinners well enough and that's why he was never considered.

“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 Khawaja,” Khawaja said after his century as quoted by NDTV.

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