Being beaten, deceived and outplayed against spin in Sri Lanka last year, Australia’s Usman Khawaja has said he’ll do whatever it takes to overcome his shortcomings to ensure he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes when Australia tour India in February for four Test matches.
The southpaw had a torrid time facing spin in the three-match series against Sri Lanka in August 2016, having scored just 30 runs in four innings before being left out of the third Test. The series also saw Sri Lanka completing a 3-0 whitewash over the visitors, adding misery to their already shattered looking record in sub-continent.
Speaking about Australia’s upcoming fixtures, Khawaja said he is looking forward to the ODI series against Pakistan, but will keep notes on how to improve his technique against the turning ball. He further added after the squad for the Tests series gets named, preparations would be a lot easy for the players.
“I’ll definitely have a chance, and I’ve already started doing some work. I know the team (for India) hasn’t been picked but you’ve just got to be prepared no matter what. It’s always something you’ve got to be mindful of, even when you’re playing white-ball cricket. I’ll wait until the team is picked and then it will be easier to plan out.”
After the end of the ODIs against Pakistan on January 26, the Australian team is likely to travel to middle-east for the preparation camp before heading to India for Tests.
Pressing the practice point over again, Khawaja said he will go through the videos of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to study their tactics and later claimed India to be one of the biggest challenges for the touring countries to find any success, if not complete.
“India is a tough place to play cricket, as a lot of other places are. It’s always tough when you go to England, or go to South Africa. They are different conditions and that’s what makes the challenge. And India is probably one of the greatest challenges because it’s the most different to what we’ve grown up playing against. From experience, you practice and practice and practice but until you get out in the middle and get put under pressure and have those experiences in the middle and find your way around it, it’s just not the same”, he concluded.