"Toughest place in the world to bat for a top three batter" - Usman Khawaja looking forward to Ashes series in England
Australia Test opener Usman Khawaja feels England is perhaps the toughest place to play for a top-order batter. The southpaw suggested that he will head to the Ashes series with as low expectations as possible, given the chances of failure are reasonable.
Khawaja has been Australia's best batter in the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, mustering 1608 runs in 28 innings at 69.91 with six centuries. His run-tally is also the second-highest in the cycle, with Joe Root topping the charts.
The Pakistan-born batter reflected that the new ball is quite hard to negotiate in England, while the old ball keeps doing a bit as well. As quoted by cricket.com.au, he stated:
"England is, in my opinion, the toughest place in the world to bat for a top three batter, plain and simple. New ball is tough work, but then you get some conditions, and it's a bit of luck involved in it, too; sometimes you get the other team out, then suddenly the clouds roll over ... other times you're out there and it's nice and sunny."
However, the 36-year-old opined that it's equally critical to cash in after getting off to a start.
"If I've learned anything, it's work hard, train hard, and if you're going to England, go with low expectations, and then just work on every game one at a time, because you are going to fail as a batter. But when you do score, you try to cash in as much as you can."
Khawaja suffered a setback during the 2019 leg of the Ashes as he was dropped after the third Test of that series. The left-hander had only managed 122 runs in six innings until that point.
"I felt like I was still in the top-six batters in Australia" - Usman Khawaja
Reflecting on his absence from the Australian team for 18 months, Khawaja said it wasn't justified as he kept scoring runs in the first-class circuit. The veteran conceded that failures are a part and parcel of any cricketer's career, elaborating:
"I felt like I was still in the top six batters in Australia. I've proven that over the years in first-class cricket; if you look at my record, I've been dropped seven times, and that's just Test cricket and I've come back. Over the last 10 years, I think (selectors have) been very reactive, and the media itself is also reactive. As a cricketer, you're going to fail one, two or three games, that's very normal, and then you score runs, and then you'll fail, and then your score runs. It's just a cycle of cricket."
The 2023 Ashes series starts on June 16 at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Australia have the WTC final against India before that, which starts on June 7.