IND vs AUS 2023: Khawaja terms facing Ashwin-led Indian spin attack as 'hardest challenge'
Australia's Usman Khawaja, who arrived in India after his teammates due to a visa delay, will open the batting alongside David Warner in the upcoming 4-match Test series, starting on February 9 in Nagpur.
FollowUsman Khawaja, the opening batsman for Australia, described confronting the Ravichandran Ashwin-led Indian spin attack as the "hardest challenge" of the four-match series, which begins on February 9 in Nagpur. The Pakistan-born batter, who arrived in India after his teammates due to a visa delay, will open the batting alongside David Warner.
Khawaja has participated in limited-overs cricket in India, but after being a member of the Test squad in 2013 and 2017, he will now have the chance to play in the longest format.
Recently named Australia's 'Test Cricketer of the Year', the southpaw is expected to play a significant role in his team's quest to win its first series in India since 2004-05.Â
"There's definitely a different feel. There are no guarantees in this game, but at least there's a bit more maturity, particularly in the batting, and more maturity in the bowling. We've learnt a lot over the last 10 years, particularly the types of wickets we can get and how we think we can perform and go out and win Test matches out here. It feels like we are in a better spot than before, but it's always going to be tough," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.Â
Before the Test series, Australia decided against playing a warm-up match and instead chose to recreate spin-friendly conditions near Bengaluru when they arrived last week. They obtained Ashwin's "duplicate" as part of their preparation for the high-profile match since they perceive him as the biggest threat from the opposition. Australia, a left-handed team, is putting in extra effort to counter Ashwin's threat.
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"Ashwin is a gun. He is very skilful. He has a lot of tricky little variations, and he uses the crease quite well. If you asked me the same question when I was younger, I probably wouldn't have been able to answer a lot of things because I didn't learn how to face what off-spinners are doing," said Khawaja.Â
"But it's one of those really good challenges. The wicket will turn here at some point, whether day one, day three or day four, and he will be in the game and bowl a lot of overs. So it's all about figuring out how I'm going to play against him, how I'm going to score runs against him, what he might do. If you bat a long time against him, he's going to change his game plans against you. He's not the kind of guy who'll do the same thing over and over, he's going to try to work you out," he added.Â
In all four games, the visitors anticipate turning pitches, which will increase the trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Ashwin's lethality with the new ball.
"If it's a good wicket, the new ball is probably the easiest time to bat. But as soon as the wicket deteriorates in India and you've got spinners bowling with a new ball, that's probably the hardest time to bat anywhere. When we train, the new ball on spinning wickets is always the hardest time. People assume opening the batting is the best time to bat in the subcontinent, it is when it's flat, but it's not when it's spinning when there's so much variation with that new ball. Once it softens up it gets easier to predict what it's going to do," Khawaja added.
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He also narrated his travails in reaching India. "It was what it was. I just wanted to get over there, to be honest. There's a good Sydney flight straight from Sydney to Bangalore, and I missed that, unfortunately, which sucked. It was long, I had to go down to Melbourne and then from Melbourne, I got delayed going three hours from Sydney to Melbourne, so it took me five or six hours to get there. Then I got delayed again from Melbourne to Delhi by four hours again, so just delays after delay after delays. Still a little bit groggy from the flight. Oh well, I'm here now," he signed off.
(With inputs from PTI)
