IND vs AUS: "This Could Be A Career-Defining Tour" - Usman Khawaja Looking Forward To India Series
Published - 27 Jan 2023, 11:12 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:15 AM
Usman Khawaja thinks that if Australia’s men’s Test team can win all three of their important challenges coming up in the next six months, they will go down in history as a great squad.
The team departs for India the next week for the first of three international trips that will determine their place in the annals of the sport. Australia hasn’t triumphed in India since 2004–2005, and after that, there will probably be a World Test Championship final in early June before the Ashes, when they’ll try to win the Ashes series in England for the first time since 2001 as well as keep the trophy they won in 2019.
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Usman Khawaja Excited For India Tour
“100%, definitely,” Usman Khawaja responded when questioned if the team, should they win the three available trophies, would merit the title of great “But win, lose or draw, we’ve played some amazing cricket. We are the world No. 1 team at the moment, have been for last year, we’ve got some terrific players in this team. [We’ve got] one of the best Test cricket batsmen I’ve seen, Steve Smith, and got some amazing bowlers, too.
“Personally, it’s probably the best team I’ve been a part of because even when I came into the side we were sort of in transition. We had some great players, [and] some new players in between, so it’s just really nice to be in a team where everyone trusts each other and looking forward to what will happen over the next six months.”
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Jason Gillespie weighed in on what success in India would imply for the squad as a member of the team that triumphed there in 2004 after watching the 2001 series slip away.
“Let’s be honest, for this group of Australian players, this could be a career-defining tour,” he said. “All us cricket tragics and fans should be pretty excited about this group of players, I know I’m excited as a cricket fan to see what this group of players can achieve in India.”
Khawaja has not yet played a Test match in India despite being a member of the teams for the travels there in 2013 and 2017. In what became known as “homeworkgate,” four players from the 2013 tour were punished for one Test match after failing to turn in a Mickey Arthur-invited assignment. He was one of them.
We Have Always Got One Eye On Future Tours: Usman Khawaja
This time, Usman Khawaja makes a comeback as a more accomplished batter who is considerably more at ease in a loose setup. He has been planning part of his preparation over the domestic summer while keeping an eye on the India tour over the past several months.
“We’ve always got one eye on future tours, no matter what,” he said. “We do take it one tour at a time but you have to have one eye on the tour, especially if you are going from here to India with very different conditions.
“Even the way I’ve been practicing, I’ve been practicing for these [home] games here but when I feel I’ve ticked that off I go and do stuff I feel I need to for next two months. I know there’s a lot of other guys who are similar, just comes from maturity. A lot of us are pretty old now, we’ve been around for a while now, with that maturity we understand you need to have one eye ahead.”
Some of the 18-member team will travel to Sydney for a training camp, while others, like Khawaja, will stay with their BBL teams for the first round of the playoffs series. The team departs for India early the next week, staying in Bengaluru first before travelling to Nagpur for the first Test, which starts on February 9.
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