5 reasons why India lost the second Test against Australia

#4 Usman Khawaja’s resilient knock

Khawaja played a brilliant knock of 72 in the second innings

In the absence of David Warner, Steve Smith, the onus of Australia’s batting is in the hands of Usman Khawaja. Khawaja was brilliant against Pakistan in the UAE, helping the Aussies save a Test match.

Khawaja did not have the best of starts to this series, scoring just 36 runs in the first Test. In the first innings of Perth Test as well, Khawaja fell for a poor shot to a half-tracker from Umesh Yadav.

In the second innings, Khawaja proved his mettle with a brilliant inning of 72 runs. Although his innings was full of play and misses, Khawaja did not give his wicket away and kept at it. His partnership of 72 runs with Captain Tim Paine got Australia out of a tricky situation and put the Aussies into the driving seat.

The duo played out the first session of Day 4 when the match was firmly in the balance. It proved to be a pivotal moment in the game.