New Delhi: Usman Khawaja, who came in as Travis Head’s replacement in Australia XI for Eng vs Aus 4th Ashes Test, scored two hundreds for his team at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Fans and experts doubted whether Umar will play the Eng vs Aus 5th Test match against England. But in the meantime, Australian captain Pat Cummins indicated that it will be difficult to remove a batsman who has scored two centuries in a Test match.
Pat Cummins also said that the selectors will work on the Australian team combination for the final Test match.
“I’ll preface it by saying I’m not a selector, but when someone comes out and hits twin hundreds, it’s pretty hard to go past them for the week after. So we’ll work through that, the selectors will work through that the next few days. But when someone’s running hot, has got a heap of experience like Uzzy, the way he plays is fantastic,” said Cummins as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
Cummins also said that Usman Khawaja can replace any batsman from No 1 to No 6 in the Australian batting lineup.
“Felt like he could replace any batter from one to six. I know there’s been question marks historically on him playing over in Asia but you see how well he’s played spin recently – reverse sweeping, sweeping – he’s just someone who’s in total command of his game. That’s why you love experience,” concluded Pat Cummins.
35-year-old left-handed Usman Khwaja equaled records of Aussie batting legends Doug Walters and Ricky Ponting in Sydney by scoring centuries in both the innings of the match. Khawaja played innings of 137 and 101 runs. Doug Walters had scored two centuries against West Indies in 1968/69 and Ricky Ponting against South Africa in 2005/06 at Sydney.
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