Khawaja: 'My favourite match ever in my life'
Khawaja proclaimed the Edgbaston victory as his favourite after scores of 141 and 65 helped guide Australia to a thrilling two-wicket win
Alex Malcolm21-Jun-2023Australia’s hero Usman Khawaja proclaimed the Edgbaston victory as the favourite match of his life after he compiled two epic knocks of 141 and 65 to help the visitors claim a miraculous two-wicket win and claim a 1-0 series lead.Khawaja echoed his captain Pat Cummins who also said it was his new No.1 favourite Test match. It is the second time in three Ashes Tests that Khawaja has claimed the Player of the Match award following his twin centuries on his Test return in Sydney in January 2022.That Test was the start of his renaissance as a Test player having been left out two-and-a-half years after being dropped midway through the 2019 Ashes series. Since his return, he has scored seven Test centuries in just 32 innings, averaging 67.66.Related
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The 2022 Sydney Test still holds a special place in his heart but he said the victory in Edgbaston has usurped it.”SCG was special, it was unexpected,” Khawaja said after Australia’s dramatic win. “My career was over in my head. I’ve said it a million times but it was. Hard to beat that from an individual point of view but from a team point of view, and wins, this is by far my favourite match ever in my life.”The way it ebbed and flowed, the way they came out, the way we counterattacked, it looked like we’d lost the game probably with an hour to go and to come back and win, by far my favourite game of all time.”Khawaja’s contribution to Australia’s victory cannot be understated. His ability to bat time and hold both of Australia’s innings together in a game where the opposition had scored at breakneck speed showed Khawaja’s extraordinary powers of concentration, but also his willingness to play his own way.
He batted for 796 minutes in the match. Only three men have batted longer in Ashes Tests and only one Australian, Mark Taylor in Peshawar in 1998, has batted longer in a Test match. He became just the 13th player in Test history to bat on all five days of a Test. He was also the first Australian to face more than 500 balls in a Test since Ricky Ponting in 2012.”As a youngster, I had to bat a long time to score runs,” Khawaja said. “I was little, I didn’t have too many shots, so I learnt how to bat a long time from a young age. It doesn’t always work out like that. I have it in me, I think the majority of the guys up there have it in them.”Today was tough because I just wanted to take it deep. Little Uzzie inside of me was saying ‘you can expand now, you can get into second or third gear now’ but I was like ‘no, no take it deep, take it as far deep as you can’.”Because I knew if we could get into that last hour and had less than 100 runs we could get it but if we lost too many wickets early that was game over for us. So I actually wanted to go a lot harder than I did in the last hour and a half I was in, I wanted to start playing more shots. But I kept fighting with myself, it was just about building partnerships.”There were a few sledges here and there … if it was purely individual, I would have gone a lot harder early. Mid-off was up for the spinner, I could have gone over the top, I could have reverse-swept, I could have played sweeps, I could have played more cut shots, slashing shots if I wanted to.”But I just thought it wasn’t worth it. I genuinely thought the only way we were going to win this game, it was going to be in the last hour and I needed to go as deep as I can. I was just doing what you can for the team.”Usman Khawaja and Australia team-mates batting in away Tests•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
His contribution was even more valuable given that the top-two ranked batters in the world, Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith, made just 35 between them. But Khawaja is backing both men to fire at Lord’s.”I genuinely just expect [Labuschagne] to score a hundred next game,” Khawaja said. “We had potentially our two best batters not score runs this game. It’s very unlikely, doesn’t happen very often. In my opinion, the greatest batter of my era in Test cricket, Steve Smith, not very often he misses out twice. We’ve still got four Ashes Tests. Might be a good thing for us, they have some runs in the bank.”Khawaja also has the unique claim of having the highest average for an opener in Test history (minimum 20 innings) but he believes it is of little value.”Says I should retire, right?” Khawaja said. “Means nothing to me because I know how quickly that can change. It’s awesome at the time. People love talking about averages and what’s going on at the time, but when you finish they are on to the next best thing. I understand that and respect that. I’m just enjoying the game while I can. Enjoying the journey. Wherever I end up by the end of my career I’ll definitely be grateful that I had a career for Australia. That’s all that matters for me.”