Australia opening batter Usman Khawaja has become only the third cricketer in history to be left stranded on 190s with captain opting to declare the innings. An instance which has happened after almost a couple of decades in Test cricket didn’t provide Khawaja an opportunity of converting a career-best innings into a double century.
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Legendary batters Frank Worrell and Sachin Tendulkar, the other two batters who were denied a chance to complete a double century previously, had scored one in the format beforehand unlike Khawaja.
With incessant rain in Sydney playing spoilsport on all four days of the ongoing third Test match against South Africa thus far, Australia captain Pat Cummins didn’t want to waste any more time in order to give himself and other bowlers enough overs to possibly bowl out the visitors twice in a bid to register a 3-0 series whitewash.
Khawaja, who was batting on 195* when rain forced players to return back to their pavilions on Day 2, must have spent a couple of nights thinking about a personal milestone. However, with rain completely washing out the third day, one can’t blame Cummins for his decision to declare overnight.
“Look, 195* is not too bad. I think if you have a mantra of team first, you’ve got to take those individual performances out of the thinking,” former Australia captain Allan Border told Fox Cricket with respect to Khawaja’s situation despite the latter believing that it would be “harsh” to declare on the previous day.
Usman Khawaja SCG average
It is worth a mention that it was at the Sydney Cricket Ground where Khawaja had made a stupendous Test comeback after more than a couple of years a year ago.
Khawaja, who had become the 17th Australian batter to score two centuries in a Test match on his comeback, has since been undroppable on the back of amassing 1,275 runs across 21 innings at an average of 79.68 including five centuries and half-centuries each.
As far as playing at the SCG throughout his Test career is concerned, the 36-year old player has scored 785 runs across 10 innings at 130.83 with the help of four centuries and a half-century.