Usman Khawaja scored only 184 runs in five matches in the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. After a flop show in the series, many former cricketers called for his retirement from the format but the Australian team management backed the opener and that resulted in him scoring a big ton in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle Interantional Stadium. The 38-year-old made an unbeaten 147 runs and will be hoping to convert that to a double ton on Day 2.
Meanwhile, after the dayโs play, the southpaw called for perspective and divided his Test career in the sub-continent into two halves. He was dropped in the middle of the 2016 series against Sri Lanka but the cricketer made a strong return to reestablish his authority in the spin-friendly sub-continent tracks. He noted that even though Steve Smith is regarded as one of the greatest Test batters, he has hit 35 Test tons and highlighted that cricketers canโt produce runs in every game.
โIt’s a contrast of two halves – my career in the subcontinent. There’s pre-Dubai, post-Dubai. There were some low times – my wife Rachel was here with me [in 2016, when he’d been dropped mid-series in Sri Lanka], and we had so many of those tough times. No one ever sees that. Everyone sees the good stuff,โ Khawaja was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
โBut you have to take the good stuff when you get it. It doesn’t come around very much. We had one of the greatest players to play the game – Steven Smith – get to, what was that, 35 Test hundreds? As great as he is, he’s only done it 35 times. That puts things into perspective,โ he added.
Khawaja now has 16 tons to his name in Test cricket and five out of them were hit in the sub-continent. In recent times, only he and Allen Border hold the record to score a Test hundred in India, Pakistan and Ssri Lanka.ย