Usman Khawaja: All you need to know about the newest RPSG member

After Kevin Pietersen of the Rising Pune Supergiants was ruled out of the ongoing IPL season due to a calf injury, Usman Khawaja’s name was the first one to pop up as his possible replacement. The former England batsman picked up the injury during RPSG’s game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on 22 April.

MS Dhoni’s RPSG, who have been visibly struggling in this IPL with just 2 wins out of their 6 games, have named the Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja as a replacement for Pietersen.

The Australian opener was in scintillating form during the recently concluded World T20 2016, where Australia were knocked out in the group stage. He played four matches and scored 143 runs at a strike rate of 137.50 and an average of 35.75, with just one 50+ score.

Here are the top 10 facts to know about Rising Pune Supergiants’ latest acquisition:

1) Usman Khawaja was born in Islamabad, and became the first Muslim and first Pakistani-born player to play Test cricket for Australia, and only the seventh foreign-born cricketer to do so in the last 80 years.

2) Khawaja made his first-class debut for New South Wales in 2008 and holds a record in Australian first-class cricket of being the only player to hit consecutive double centuries for NSW Second XI. He also won the player of the tournament in the Australian Under-19 Championship in 2005 and played for Australia in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka as an opening batsman.

3) The left-handed batsman made his Test debut on 3 January 2011 and scored 37 & 21 in his two innings. He was dropped from the team for 2 years owing to poor form and multiple shoulder injuries. He made a stunning return to Test cricket on 5 November 2015 against New Zealand, and has scored 4 centuries in 6 matches at an average of 101.85 since then, with the highest test score of 174.

4) Khawaja's knocks of 109*, 62, 104* and 70 helped Sydney Thunders win their first Big Bash League in 2016, where he averaged at 172.5 in the four innings that he played.

5) The 29-year-old made his T20I debut on 31 January 2016 when Australia played India in Sydney and was caught on 14(6), with a strike rate of 233.33. He has played seven T20 international matches for Australia, scoring 199 runs at a strike rate of 137.24, averaging 28.42, with a highest score of 58.

Khawaja was Australia’s highest run-getter in the World T20 2016

6) He made his ODI debut for Australia on 11 January, 2013 against Sri Lanka in Melbourne, and was run-out on 3. He has scored 108 runs in five ODIs for Australia at an average of 27.

7) Apart from being a professional cricketer, Khawaja is also a qualified commercial and instrumental pilot. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Aviation from the University of New South Wales (NSW) before his Test debut.

8) During the Border-Gavaskar series in 2012-13, Khawaja and a few other cricketers were suspended from the side for ‘breach of team protocol.’ After losing the first two Tests of the series, they were asked to submit a three-point presentation by their coach on ways to improve the team’s performance, failing which Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Khawaja and James Pattinson were axed from the third Test against India.

9) After his Test debut in 2011, Khawaja could have easily made it big in the money- rich Indian Premier League, but instead, he chose to play County Cricket for Derbyshire in England to enhance his cricketing skills and knowledge.

10) The Australian batsman was involved in an on-field spat with Sanju Samson during the final match of the tri-series between India A and Australia A in 2015. The incident happened during the Australian innings when Samson claimed a catch which the visitors thought was invalid. Post-match, the visiting captain Khawaja claimed that Samson spat on his players.