Usman Khawaja finds form by ‘batting ugly’, says Adam Gilchrist

Usman Khawaja has a habit of being able to stay calm when the world is buzzing around him, and in Perth, he played a knock that dug himself out of a mini slump.

Usman Khawaja delivered a match-winning knock in Perth. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

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Usman Khawaja has a habit of being able to stay calm when the world is buzzing around him.

At times that’s prompted critics to insinuate he’s not fully switched on, but Khawaja’s measured outlook to batting is proving a blessing.

It’s been more than 30 years since Australia went two Tests in a home summer without a batsman scoring more than 80, but Khawaja’s fighting 72 on day four in Perth was worth a hundred.

Usman Khawaja delivered a match-winning knock in Perth. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

By his own admission Khawaja had been completely suffocated by India’s quicks in his first three digs of the series, almost unable to score. But rather than sweat over a solution as to where his next run was coming from, the left-hander gave every impression he’d barely given his three failures post knee surgery a second thought.

Khawaja averages 42.8 in Test cricket by staying Zen, and although Monday’s innings was his slowest ever Test 50 by a whopping 34 balls, he never seemed fazed.

It wasn’t always easy going for Khawaja. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

For any other player you might think he’s talking in clichés, but Khawaja is one batsman who really seems to go with the flow as he negated an unpredictable pitch to drive Australia to set India an imposing 287-run target.

“Cricket’s a funny game. It goes in circles. I scored a lot of runs this year,” said Khawaja.

“I scored a lot of runs in first-class cricket, over in Glamorgan (English county cricket), Aussie A, and then in the UAE.

“There’s going to be a couple of innings here and there where I don’t. That’s just part of the game.

“Nothing changes. Credit to the bowlers when they bowl well to you.

“If you’re not scoring runs, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You just have to get out there next time and score some more runs.

“It could be a lot worse. I could get three first-ballers.”

Khawaja is known for his elegance, but Adam Gilchrist put Monday’s match-defining knock down to “batting ugly.”

“He was a bit more fluid in the UAE, but unlike a lot of players in this more modern age – and perhaps it’s T20 cricket and white ball cricket that’s created it - he’s playing an innings that we don’t see a lot, where they’re just prepared to bat ugly… to dig in and do whatever it takes,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket.

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Test great Allan Border, someone who knew a thing or two about digging in, was also impressed.

“Sometimes you just don’t see enough of that,” Border said on Fox.

“And that’s not a bad thing. I like how the game flows and there are more results rather than boring draws.

“Occasionally, particularly on some of the pitches they play on now… sometimes you’re not going to look a million dollars, you’ve just got to battle your way and it’s amazing how it can trigger some of your better scores

“An ugly 30 can convert into one of your best ever 100s. You’ve just got to hang in there.”

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