-Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
A left-handed Australian opening batter leaps and pumps his fist in the air after reaching three figures. For years, this sight has been associated with David Warner, who made it his trademark celebration and performed it in different parts of the world.
In Ahmedabad on a hot Thursday afternoon, it was the turn of Warner’s antithesis to execute the act at Narendra Modi Stadium. Different in every possible manner other than being a left-hander, Usman Khawaja thus ticked a box his opening partner in the first two Tests of the ongoing series has not. Despite scoring 25 Test centuries, Warner has not been able to achieve one in India in 10 Tests. Khawaja got his first in these shores in his fourth Test.
This, of course, is not an attempt to compare two players who cannot be compared. Khawaja is the most un-Australian like batter in their current squad. Naturally so, because he has roots in Pakistan and was born in Islamabad. His batting is distinctly more Asian than Aussie and his methods of operation are clearly different from players of the country he grew up in. He is more wristy and has the kind of game needed to succeed in the sub-continent seems to come naturally to him.
Then again, this is not an attempt to appreciate Khawaja’s batting style either. To put things in context, his 14th Test century kept Australia in the hunt for a remarkable come-from-behind series-levelling win which might severely dent India’s pride. They have a long way to go still, but that the team which was trampled in the first two Tests is in a position to harbour redemption hopes due to Khawaja’s efforts in this Test underlines the value of his unbeaten century.
If Test cricket returning to normalcy after three games played in conditions overwhelmingly favouring spinners was a welcome sight, no less pleasing was the way Khawaja went about his job. Pretty much a touch player who seldom relies on power, the 36-year-old was the epitome of a Test opener on the first day of the fourth Test. Playing with soft hands, showing astute judgement of what to touch and what not outside off, he was also elegance personified. Most aesthetic were the deft flicks and whipping shots off the pads, which were about timing and no force at all. The Indian bowlers gifted him more than a few in that region and he made the most graceful use of those.
His performance in this series also shows how he has evolved in the matter of just a few weeks. Seemingly obsessed with sweeps and reverse sweeps in the first half of the series when he lived and died by these shots while making 81 in the second Test, Usie, as he is known as, was a man transformed in the third. Cutting the sweep shot almost completely out of his repertoire, he made 60 in that game to help his team take a decisive first-innings lead.
In far better conditions for batting in Ahmedabad, Khawaja continued his love affair with India. Having shown glimpses of his skills during two four-day Tests and a one-day tri-series in 2015, he was instrumental and inspirational in Australia’s ODI series win four years later. His team had lost the first two games and won the last three where Khawaja made 104, 91 and 101. That series showed how much more comfortable he is than his teammates in these conditions.
Except for the pace he scored his runs back then, all other traits were visible on Thursday. Foremost of those was the doggedness required to bat through a day in this heat. Languid style of batting catches the eye, but a Test opener has to show some steel and determination to go with that and make full use of that. Khawaja was prepared to grind it out even if it meant spending long periods in the middle without scoring too many. Although this is a fast disappearing characteristic, the Queensland opener showed it is not completely gone yet.
Know what? No matter how many Australia get in the first innings, the temperament shown by Khawaja is something that the Indians have to replicate to stay in the match before they start thinking of winning this one. That these lessons for the home team boasting of someone like Cheteshwar Pujara have come from a visiting batter shows how well Khawaja has done. Valuable? Yes. Pleasing to the eye? Yes. Food for thought? Yes again. There you go. Not many Australians have ticked so many boxes playing in India.