Usman Khawaja

Usman Khawaja has fallen agonisingly short of a fairytale century in Rawalpindi, with the Australian opener removed for 97 at Pindi Cricket Stadium on ...

“I feel for the fans. Seventy-four of 156 completed Test matches in Pakistan have ended as a draw, and this fixture looks destined to suffer the same fate. It wasn’t a chanceless innings from the Queenslander — Fawad Alam put down a regulation chance at gully when Khawaja was on 22. I know how much they love cricket in the subcontinent. Travis Head’s Covid-19 scare opened the door for Khawaja to make his long-awaited return to the Test side in January, and the 35-year-old has since been Australia’s highest run-scorer. “To put it in perspective, I wasn’t even in the Australian team a few months ago, so I’m very grateful to be here, and I’m happy I contributed to the team at the end of the day.” His explosive sweep shot off Sajid Khan in the 51st over was arguably the shot of the Test match thus far. Only four wickets fell in the opening 14 hours of the historic Test at Rawalpindi, one of which was a run-out. Khawaja accelerated after he was gifted an extra life at the crease, whipping out the late cut and reverse sweep on his way to a half-century. The Pakistan-born cricketer was on the verge of becoming the first Australian to score a Test century in Pakistan since 1998, but spinner Nauman Ali snared the crucial breakthrough in the 54th over of Australia’s first innings. Khawaja, who was born down the road in Islamabad, returned to Pakistan as a six-year-old on a family holiday in the early 1990s. Usman Khawaja has fallen agonisingly short of a fairytale century in Rawalpindi, with the Australian opener removed for 97 at Pindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Even before his triumphant return to the Australian side during the Ashes, Khawaja had been earmarked for this tour; his century at the SCG was merely a rubber ...

More importantly, Khawaja has continued to repay selectors’ faith in him. Khawaja was closing in on the century that seemed inevitable and the crowd seethed in anticipation, ready and eager to celebrate the raised bat of the man who was born just a few kilometres away. Milestones are merely an arbitrary construct, the difference between 97 and a century is negligible and meaningless, apart from an engraving on an honours board or a tick in a stats column. Even before his triumphant return to the Australian side during the Ashes, Khawaja had been earmarked for this tour; his century at the SCG was merely a rubber stamp on his presence. During training sessions at Rawalpindi he exchanged pleasantries and chit-chat in his mother tongue with people walking past the the nets like a long lost friend. Usman Khawaja was destined to score a century on his return to Pakistan, the land of his birth.

Australia has set its sights on turning the Rawalpindi runfest into a contest after reaching 2-271 at stumps on a shortened day three.

He was born almost 30KMs from Pindi Stadium, he returned today to play an absolutely fantastic knock. What a story!#PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/O3XNZ5B6QC It was one of four boundaries he hit off the quick, while his quirkiest four came when he went to reverse-sweep Sajid but changed his shot mid-delivery to a conventional sweep. And Khawaja was the man to heed the call, as he and Warner scored at more than four an over in the first session. Usman Khawaja is removed on 97, misses his Test century in his maiden in innings on the ground he played as a young boy. As a show of how much bat has ruled on the first three days, the average runs scored per wicket now sits at 124.5 and on track to be the second highest of all-time.