"I was nervous" - Australian batter Usman Khawaja on his brilliant century against England

Usman Khawaja made a comeback for the Australian Test side after almost two and a half years against England on January 5th. He scored a brilliant 137 runs in 260 balls to take Australia's score to 416/5 in the first innings.

Khawaja last played a test in August 2019 against England at Leeds where he made a humble eight and 23 in both innings respectively. Since then, Khawaja had been out of action.

It is only obvious that he would have been nervous making a comeback to the national side. That too on the back of COVID-19 infection of one of his fellow mates. However, he played an impeccable innings against the English bowling attack.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, the Australian batter said:

“I was nervous. I have been nervous coming into it. Not only because it is test cricket, and I haven’t played it for a while, but also because I haven’t played cricket in a while. It was a month ago.”

He continued:

“So, I was out of the rhythm of it, and when you don’t go out in the middle for [quite long], it does feel a little bit foreign. So when I went out [to bat] yesterday, it was a little bit foreign.”

The southpaw was initially nervous, he enjoyed being at the crease, especially with the kind of support he received from the fans.

“It was beautiful, a lot of fun out there. I had a lot of support. It is my former home-ground, but people still treat me like a local boy.”

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“I was just excited and pumped” – Usman Khawaja on the LeBron James style celebration

Khawaja's golden run came from Jack Leach's bowling in 111th over of the innings. He whipped the delivery on his legs towards deep square leg and managed to run three.

He celebrated by raising his bat and jumping and pumping his fist in the air. He then again raised his bat along with his helmet and then went on to do the iconic LeBron James celebration.

Talking about the celebration, he said,

“I was just excited and pumped. Didn’t think I was going to get a hundred. They don’t come very often, and you put in a lot of hard work into them.”

He continued:

“I don’t know why I did it. I muck it around with the boys, and do it when I am shooting or just win at table tennis or anything stupid. I just brought it to test cricket, why not!”

Khawaja’s century has put the Aussies in a commanding position in the match. They lead by 403 runs at the end of Day 2. Khawaja is hopeful that his contribution will lead the team to a winning outcome.