Usman Khawaja’s daughter steals show in post-play press conference

Usman Khawaja may have scored a brilliant unbeaten hundred on Day 2 at Edgbaston, but it was daughter Aisha who stole the show.

Usman Khawaja with daughter Aisha in the post-play press conference on Day 2 of the First Ashes Test at Edgbaston.

Usman Khawaja was the hero for Australia on Day 2 as the tourists fought back against the wrath of “BazBall”, but it was three-year-old daughter Aisha who stole the show in the post-play press conference.

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The opener sat down with Aisha in his arms, letting the press pack know that “she didn’t want to be away from me.”

Aisha can be heard asking about her younger sister Ayla, who was born in May 2022.

“Daddy, baby Ayla’s not here!” Aisha said.

“Yeah, she’s not here, baby Ayla’s not here, she’s with Mama,” replied Khawaja.

“We’ll go back soon though, okay? Two minutes.”

The hilarious moment when the daughter of Australian cricketer, Usman Khawaja, was caught by her dad scrolling through a journalist's camera roll 😅 pic.twitter.com/wgxlgTIcOv

— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 17, 2023

The 36-year-old proceeded to start the press conference by setting expectations – “I don’t know how long I have here, so let’s do this.”

The press conference proceeded without a hitch, until a hilarious moment when Khawaja spotted Aisha flipping through a journalist’s camera roll.

“Stop swiping through the camera!” he laughed, to raucous laughs from the press gallery.

“It’s okay, you can do it later – you can play with Dad’s phone.”

Khawaja opened up on what was an “emotional” day two century for the 36-year-old, who has been dropped seven times in his career, most recently on the last tour to England which saw him spend three years in the wilderness of domestic cricket.

Since his recall for the 2022 New Year’s Test, Khawaja has been Test cricket’s form batter – no one in the world has scored as many runs as he has at a higher average – 1509 runs at 62.87 with five centuries.

Despite this, the tag that he can’t bat in England has always loomed over him, having previously averaged 17.78 in the mother country before his overnight century.

Usman Khawaja left the field of play unbeaten on 126. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Khawaja said his unique celebration was just an outpouring of emotion. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

It all came to the fore as a visibly jubilant Khawaja threw his bat in the air in celebration on reaching the milestone, and when asked about it, simply explained it as a result of all that had come before for him in England.

“I honestly don‘t know,” Khawaja told reporters.

“I think it was a culmination of three Ashes tours to England and being dropped on two of them.

“I don‘t read the media, but when I’m getting sprayed in the nets and getting sprayed when I’m walking out there that I can’t bat in England, I guess it was just a bit more emotional than normal.

“I feel like I‘m saying this all the time, the same thing happened in India.

“(It‘s) not that I have a point to prove, but it’s nice to go out and score runs for Australia, just to show everyone the last 10 years haven’t been a fluke.”

Originally published as Usman Khawaja’s daughter steals show in post-play press conference