3 records Usman Khawaja broke in 1st Ashes Test at Edgbaston
Australian opener Usman Khawaja was undisputedly the visiting team's hero in the pulsating Ashes curtain-raiser at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Australia beat England by two wickets as they chased 281 in the dying minutes of Day 5 on June 20.
In a match where top-ranked batters Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith were futile, Khawaja stood like a rock in front of the English bowlers, exasperating them.
The Queensland player compiled scores of 141 and 65 to defy his dismal average of 17.78 in England in Tests. Khawaja slammed his maiden Test hundred in England to add to his 15th ton in 62 Tests.
Let's take a quick glance at a few milestones Usman Khawaja achieved in the first Test of the 2023 Ashes in Birmingham.
#3 Second Australian to bat more than 500 balls in a Test
Usman Khawaja became the 13th player to bat in a Test match on all five days. He is the only Australian batter to achieve the feat after Kim Hughes at Lord's in the 1980 Ashes.
Throughout the course of his back-to-back gritty knocks, the left-handed batter played a total of 518 balls - 321 in the first innings and 197 in the second.
He is the only other Australian batter to face 500 deliveries in a single Test after Ricky Ponting played 500 balls against India in 2012 at Adelaide.
Khawaja batted for a duration of 796 minutes in the whole game. This was the fourth longest in Ashes after Len Hutton (797 minutes in 1938), Herbert Sutcliffe (810 in 1925), and Alastair Cook (908 in 2010).
#2 Completed 1000 Test runs against England
Ahead of the first Test in Birmingham, Usman Khawaja had scored 882 runs in 15 matches against England at an average of 47.62.
His determined 141-run knock in the first innings itself helped him to complete 1000 Test runs against the hosts.
This is the first time for Khawaja to amass over 1000 Test runs against a Test-playing nation. His second-best record happens to be against Pakistan, the country of his birth, with 992 runs in eight Tests.
Khawaja is only the third player from the current Australian Test side to score more than 1000 runs against England after Steve Smith (3066) and David Warner (1933).
#1 Second Australian opener to hit fifty and a century in a Test in England
Usman Khawaja is only the second Australian opener to score a century and a fifty in the same Test match in England. He made 141 in the first innings and followed it with 65 in the next.
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor was the last opening visitor batter to hit a hundred and fifty in the same Test. Taylor scored 136 and 60 at Headingley in the 1989 Ashes. Khawaja ended the 34-year wait for an Australian opener to achieve the landmark.
Andrew Hilditch, Rick McCosker, Bill Lawry, Arthur Morris, and Warren Bardsley are the other Australian openers to hit fifty and century in the same Test.