Ashes 2023 | When The Going Gets Tough, Usman Khawaja Gets Going!

image-lj0fw1l5Usman Khawaja slammed his 15th Test ton at Edgbaston (AP Photo)

They say, the true value of a cricketer can be measured by the impact he has on the outcome of his team’s performance. 

Standard benchmark; zero bickering or philosophising there. 

And by that count, it’s rather vital to note that Usman Khawaja’s importance to his Australian national side is undoubtedly unshakable, maybe irreplaceable even. 

Australia have, in these years of playing Test match cricket, never gone onto lose a single Test when Usman Khawaja has struck a century. 

They’ve won 9 games and drawn 6 wherever this focused bowler disturber has collected a three-figure score out in the middle. 

How’s that for some importance up the order? 

In an era where the phrase impact player has become the talk of the cricket town, Usman Khawaja is the standard high definition of a phrase that we are likely to hear more often in the future. 

A classic throwback to the world of old school, patient and watchful batting, Khawaja could not possibly have begun cricket’s most respected rivalry on a more impactful note other than scoring yet another Test hundred. 

That he is still unbeaten out there in Australia’s first innings is a sign of massive news for the visitors, albeit some sort of a serious botheration for an English attack already troubled by a rather slow surface.  

There are centuries being hit all the time. It’s an everyday scenario; a recurrence so common that it’s the true deathknell for the bowlers.

But that Usman Khwaja tends to hit one with significant meaning and that sense of occasion has more fodder to base a winning storyline than many have come to attempt in all these years.

Just hours back, he struck a timely one just when Australian hopes with the dismissal of Warner and Smith were plummeted to the ground brought back life into a contest that was overly becoming England-dominated. 

Not a cricketer who makes dramatic everyday headlines, nor someone who’s hugely talked about every now and then, Usman Khwaja’s batting, it could be suggested, befits his quiet and dignified personality. 

In an era where there’s much gravitas still associated with Steven Smith and where Warner’s imminent retirement, if not some daddy hundred has, yet again, dominated discussion, the quiet surety about Khwaja’s batting has rekindled the construct of Australian cricket in an utterly un-Australian way. 

It lacks gravitas or the hype but is soundly framed with all the right notes that add to the quintessential tempo surrounding the Aussies in the 2023 Ashes. 

If anything, Usman Khawaja’s unbeaten century in this First Ashes Test has furthered the discussion about the most dominant batters around in the highly coveted series just when it had begun to seem that most talking points would (and perhaps rightly) be based on Joe Root. 

Khawaja’s valiance has neutralised the massive fandom associated with yet another Joe Root hundred, arguably one of the best the Englishman has hit against the Australians in cricket’s irrepressible rivalry. 

Besides, the left-hander has, yet again, corrected the Smith-hungry and Warner-obsessed psyche of fans reminding them that Australia aren’t limited or restricted only to the batting prowess of these two timeless heroes. 

As Stokes, Anderson and Broad will muster more courage and dig deeper than they’ve for now in a renewed bid to stop the Aussie counterattack, it’ll be worth noting what might Khawaja bring on the Test’s third day? 

The game, for now, is far from over. Bazball might have struck early, but Khwaja’s intent is still dictating terms out there. And these are just early days of what promises to be a mouth watering Ashes 2023 series.