Usman Khawaja confident of attaining fitness ahead of India Test series

Usman Khawaja gave a major boost to the struggling Australian team ahead of their home Test series against India, which is scheduled to begin next month. Khawaja claimed his recovery from a meniscal tear, an injury which he suffered during the tour of UAE, is fractionally ahead of the schedule, thus brightening his chances to get fit and play against India in the first Test starts on December 6.

Khawaja suffered the injury in warm-ups on day two of the second Test in Abu Dhabi and had to undergo a surgery on October 23 in order to get his knee repaired. In the absence of banned Steve Smith and David Warner, Khawaja is arguably the best Test batsman in the Australian squad and his recovery from the injury ahead of Test series against India will give a boost to the Kangaroos.

“In an ideal world I would like to play a Sheffield Shield game before then (the first Test). That’s the target, that’s the goal, but just have to see. Still three weeks until then, so if everything keeps going the same way it should be good,” Khawaja was quoted as saying in Cricbuzz.

“It’s going pretty well so far, just over two weeks, ran at 100% yesterday on the treadmill, hopefully, run outside tomorrow, so progressing well so far. The doctors and everyone have been really happy with the progress, there’s a long way to go, just taking it day by day at the moment and hoping to be right sooner rather than later.”

Khawaja says he is targeting a return to ODI squad

The Queenslander, who shut his critics with an impressive 141 in Dubai on a spinning track, helped Australia secure a draw against Pakistan in the first test. But he was disappointed for not contributing in the second Test, which Australia lost by 373 runs, owing to the knee injury he suffered.

“It was disappointing that second Test. You always feel like you let your teammates down when you get injured and we did lose that second match. For me it was rewarding that first match that we got out of it with a draw but obviously, I would have liked to have played that second match and won that game,” he further added.

Khawaja, who missed an opportunity to return to the ODI team in the series against South Africa due to injury, is targeting to get into ODI squad for the World cup next year in the UK.  Khawaja on making it to World Cup squad said, “Targeting World Cup is a big thing. It’s one of my major goals to get back in the one-day side.

I’ve had chats with Langer about it, he knows where I’m at too, but at the end of the day, we play a game, it’s all about performances. Hopefully, when I’m right and things are going well, I’ll put my hand up through performances.”

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Written by Akshay Verma