"Delays after delays after delays" - Usman Khawaja opens up on his delayed departure to India
Australian opener Usman Khawaja has opened up on the visa issues that delayed his arrival in India ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The left-handed batter stated that he had to take a long route to reach India, while the initial flight was a direct one.
Khawaja's departure to India got delayed due to visa issues. While the rest of the traveling contingent boarded the flight from Sydney on Wednesday, the 35-year-old flew out a day later, after Cricket Australia resolved the issue.
Speaking to The Age, the veteran batter admitted feeling gutted to miss the direct flight from Sydney to Bangalore and faced subsequent delays during his commute.
"It was what it was – I just wanted to get over there to be honest. There’s a good Sydney flight straight from Sydney to Bangalore and I missed that unfortunately, which sucked.
"It was long, I had to go down to Melbourne and then from Melbourne I got delayed going three hours from Sydney to Melbourne, so it took me five or six hours to get there. Then I got delayed again from Melbourne to Delhi by four hours again, so just delays after delays after delays. Still a little bit groggy from the flight. Oh well, I’m here now!”
As one of the most in-form players in the side, Khawaja said the current Australian team is much more mature than their predecessors and are optimistic about beating India.
"There’s definitely a different feel. There’s no guarantees in this game, but at least there’s a bit more maturity particularly in the batting, and more maturity in the bowling. We’ve learnt a lot over the last 10 years, particularly the types of wickets we can get and how we think we can perform and go out and win Test matches out here. It feels like we’re in a better spot than before, but it’s always going to be tough.”
Khawaja was the highest run-getter for Australia last year in Tests, scoring 1080 runs in 11 matches, headlined by 496 runs in the Pakistan tour at 165.33. He also won Australia's Shane Warne Test Player of the Year award.
"He’s not the kind of guy who’ll do the same thing over and over" - Usman Khawaja on Ravichandran Ashwin
Khawaja addressed the prospect of facing Ravichandran Ashwin, praising the off-spinner's range of skills.
"Ashwin is a gun. He’s very skilful, he’s got a lot of tricky little variations, he uses the crease quite well too. If you asked me the same question when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer a lot of things because I didn’t really learn about how to face what off-spinners are doing."
He believes the veteran spinner will keep re-inventing himself, adding:
"If you bat a long time against him, he’s going to change his game plans against you. He’s not the kind of guy who’ll do the same thing over and over, he’s going to try to work you out. So I’m looking forward to it."
It will be a stern test for Australia, given that they haven't won a series on Indian soil since 2004 and have won only one Test in their last four attempts.