Usman Khawaja injury: Australian batsman faces massive injury scare during Australia vs Sri Lanka Warm-up match

Usman Khawaja injury: Australian batsman faces a massive injury scare during Australia vs Sri Lanka Warm-up match at Southampton

The Australian Cricket team were handed a massive blow on Monday as their in-form batsmen at the top- Usman Khawaja gets injured while fielding during the Australia vs Sri Lanka Warm-up match, at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.

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It all happened during the 32nd over of the Sri Lankan innings. The Lankan all-rounder- Jeevan Mendis hit a full delivery bowled by Steve Smith at the mid-off region. The ball hit Usman Khawaja, who was stationed at mid-off on the side of his left-knee. The ball travelled towards Khawaja at a decent enough pace, courtesy a well-timed shot by Mendis, and hit him at an awkward one-bounce straight onto his left knee, as he had taken his eyes away from the ball.

A Painful blow

The 32-year-old was visibly very much in pain, as is the case when one suffers the blow anywhere near the knee region. He was barely able to walk after the blow, as his fellow mates gathered around him.

The physio of the Aussie team came quickly onto the field and escorted Khawaja out of the ground. At hindsight, the injury didn’t seem to be a minor one apparently. Usman has been a crucial player for the Aussie side as he has been in tremendous form for the past one year or so, in the limited overs format.

He had acted as the perfect man-to-man replacement for David Warner, as the latter was out of the Australian scheme of action since January last year. In 2019 itself, Khawaja has amassed 710 runs in the 13 ODI innings so far, at an impressive average of 54.61.

Khawaja was earlier too, on May 23, hit on the helmet by a bouncer from West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell during their unofficial warm-up game of the Cricket World Cup 2019.