India vs Australia: Was told I couldn’t play spin, says Usman Khawaja after maiden hundred against India

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Australian opener Usman Khawaja has revealed that he was told by people that he couldn’t play spin and it was the reason why he didn’t get gametime in India. Khawaja scored his maiden hundred against India on day one of the Ahmedabad Test.

New Delhi,UPDATED: Mar 9, 2023 23:51 IST

Khawaja scored his maiden hundred against India on Thursday (Courtesy: AP)

By India Today Sports Desk: Australia opener Usman Khawaja has revealed that he was told by many that he couldn’t play spin and that’s the reason why he didn’t get the chance to play in India.

Khawaja was at his sublime best on Thursday as he scored his maiden hundred against India on day one of the Ahmedabad Test as Australuia scored 255 runs for the loss of four wickets.

India vs Australia 4th Test, Day 1: Highlights | Report

The 36-year-old is unbeaten on 104 at the end of the day’s play and the visitors will be hoping he can kick on and get to a big score.

As quoted by NDTV, Khawaja revealed that throughout the middle of his career he was told he couldn’t play spin well and that’s why he never got a chance to play in India.

“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.

The opener said that he started to believe he couldn’t play spin with all the chatter around him at the time.

“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,” said Khawaja.

Khawaja also went on to say that he felt the selectors and the coaching staff didn’t support him during the early days of his career. The opener said that he was stubborn enough to got out of his way to learn how 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,” said Khawaja.

Published On:

Mar 9, 2023



Source: www.indiatoday.in

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