Usman Khawaja still can’t quite believe his sudden rise from Test squad reserve to Australian hero.
“I haven’t had a feeling like that in cricket in my whole entire life,” Khawaja tells theas the emotions of his unexpected Test recall and twin centuries in the Sydney Test continue to well up inside him.
“It was just unexpected,” Khawaja says with a faraway tone as if he continues to take in the enormity of an SCG homecoming that has left him jostling with Scott Boland as the Ashes’ Cinderella story. “It’s just one of those things I’ll never forget. And I probably haven’t had a feeling like that in cricket in my whole entire life.
“The crowd chanting my name as I’m coming off the field both times [after centuries] was something I’d never thought I’d ever experience,” he says. “It was unbelievable. And it was loud, especially after that first one – there was a pretty big crowd. It was actually a really surreal and cool moment.”
“I obviously do some things slightly different – I don’t drink, I pray behind closed doors, very private – but, other than that, I’m out and about and playing golf and mucking around with the guys having coffees and playing sports and being out; I’m on my ride-on mower and doing all the things that anyone would ever do.
However, such was his performance in Sydney he looks certain to retain his place in the team for Australia’s next tour, to Pakistan, the first in 24 years. This excites Khawaja.
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