'I wasn't feeling well at all' - Usman Khawaja opens up on his painstaking 91-run knock in Lahore Test

Usman Khawaja has had an outstanding Test series against Pakistan, having amassed 392 runs in four innings, including a century in the first innings of the previous Test where he had scored 160. The dynamic opener scored 91 on the first day of the ongoing third and final Test match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Even though the southpaw missed out on a well-deserved century for the second time in this series, he has said that he was not in the peak of his health during that impactful knock that has put the Aussies on the verge of posting a challenging first innings total. Elaborating on the same, Khawaja said that he got some medication from the doctor in between breaks.

I was a little bit sick, says Usman Khawaja

“I was a little bit sick. I got some medication from the doc in between breaks. I wasn’t feeling well at all. There were a lot of mind games in between”, said Khawaja, as quoted by Perth Now.

“I just told myself, ‘just keep going, go as long as you can, just keep pushing through. And to push through for five hours – I felt absolutely horrible at the end of the day. I could have easily just gone harder and played a big shot and got out on 20 or 30. So for me to get 90 on the day with the heat, I’m actually really happy with it”, he added.

After electing to bat first, Australia lost David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne early and were reduced to 8/2. Usman Khawaja was then involved in a 138-run stand with Steve Smith for the third wicket, before the latter’s dismissal for 59. The Pakistan-born cricketer then took the responsibility of increasing the scoring rate, and looked set for a big score.

Unfortunately, he decided to flick offie Sajid Khan to the leg-side in the 75th over, only to get a leading edge as skipper Babar Azam took an outstanding catch at the slips, thereby, bringing curtains down on his 91-run knock from 219 deliveries. The visitors’ scorecard read 232/5 at stumps.