Australian batsman Usman Khawaja has received an unexpected welcome to the IPL. He has tweeted his amusement at having his name misspelled on the back of his jersey. He arrived in India on Tuesday, and joined the rest of the Rising Pune Supergiants team on Wednesday.
He was not entirely happy with what he saw written on his jersey though.
Khawaja is expected to make his debut against DD on Thursday, or against RCB on Saturday, assumably with the error rectified. He joins a team who have lost four high-profile overseas players to injuries, and so RPS fans will be deeply grateful for his service.
However, he has jokingly threatened to go back home:
Khawaja enjoyed a massively successful 2015/16 BBL season, scoring 345 runs at an average of 172.50 for Sydney Thunders. He also scored a brilliant 70 to help Sydney Thunder win their first title against Melbourne Stars in the final.
The 29-year-old Khawaja went unsold in the February auction, but this decision by franchise managements to ignore him was hardly vindicated at the recent World T20, where Khawaja was one of the most consistent batsmen.
He gave a quick start to the Australia innings in all the WT20 matches, and was the preferred opener above David Warner and Shane Watson.
Warner was quick to reply to Khawaja’s tweet, welcoming him to the IPL:
Khawaja replied that he had not been able to pick up his favourite jersey number either:
Khawaja seems to be displeased with his name having been misspelled, but it is true that khwaja is often used in place of khawaja, both of which words denote a Sufi teacher. The title has been used in names of many greats over history, like the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, but the ‘khwaja’ spelling has been increasingly replaced by the more anglicised ‘khawaja’ spelling over the years. Not many people have been known to use the spelling ‘khwaja’ in their name since the turn of the 20th century.
Usman Khawaja, who is the first Pakistani-origin cricketer to turn out for Australia, however, has good reason to be displeased at finding his preferred name not at the back of his IPL jersey.
New RPS recruits George Bailey and Usman Khawaja during Wednesday’s practice session:
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