Team India Took Us Aback In The Way They Fought Back In The 2nd Test: Usman Khawaja

Australia’s batsman, Usman Khawaja, who has been on the sidelines since the 2019 Ashes, was part of their squad that suffered their first Test series defeat at home to India last year. Despite being the batting mainstay that year, Usman Khawaja was not able to live up to the expectations. And the southpaw did not expect India to come back the way they did in the second Test of the ongoing series.

India staged a remarkable comeback in the four-match series against Australia, beating them in Melbourne in the second Test by eight wickets. The tourists lost the first Test by the same margin and were also without Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami – two of their first-choice players. However, it did not matter much as Ajinkya Rahane marshalled his troops brilliantly against all odds to score a series-levelling win.

Usman Khawaja hardly expected India to bounce back the way they did and credited the bowlers for setting the tone. The Pakistan-born Australia batsman predicted the pink-ball Test in Adelaide to go their way and anticipates the series to live up to the billing moving forward as well. With the four-match series at 1-1 so far, Khawaja believes it could go anyone’s way.

“I didn’t expect India to come back the way they did after the first Test. India bowlers really well in that first innings. I actually thought they had a chance in the pink-ball game. But then it obviously didn’t work out their way. I think it is a great series so far, and hopefully it will keep going the way it is. But it could be anyone’s series at the moment,” Khawaja said as quoted by Sportskeeda.

We’ve been dominated by the bowlers a fair bit: Usman Khawaja

Usman Khawaja went on to praise the bowling sides of both the teams, especially India’s which he believes haven’t let the Australian batsmen off the leash. The 34-year old believes that the tourists’ bowling unit has dominated the opposition a fair bit; however, he expects the SCG track to produce the runs.

“I think it’s fairly even at the moment. Their bowlers are bowling really well and their players are just not letting Australia get off anywhere, particularly our batting. Our bowlers are bowling beautifully too. We’ve been dominated by the bowlers a fair bit. But SCG is usually a pretty good deck,” he added.

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