`Was told I can`t play spin, so never got opportunity on India tours`: Khawaja

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It was no less than a dream come true for Australian opener Usman Khawaja after he completed a very special Test hundred on Indian soil. And why wouldn`t it be? It is an achievement he had only dreams about, having carried the drinks on his previous tours of India in 2013 and 2017. The 36-year-old batted for six hours straight to grind down a quality attack, scoring an unbeaten 104 out of team`s 255 for four on Thursday in the fourth and final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

“I don`t think I have ever smiled so much on getting a century, there was emotion in it. I have done two (Test) tours of India before (2013 and 2017). Carried the drinks for eight Test matches before I got a chance here,” he said, smiling gleefully. 

The 36-year-old lost a lot of time when Cricket Australia tried out mediocre openers like Marcus North and Chris Rogers.

“Throughout the middle of my career I got told I couldn`t play spin and that`s why I never got an opportunity to play in India. It`s just nice to go out there and tick off a hundred in India which was something if you asked me five years ago if you told me that I would think you were crazy,” he explained. 

“There was a lot of emotion, I just never expected this to happen,” added the Islamabad-born, Queensland-raised cricketer. 

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But what`s his personal take on the perception about his inability to play spin? Does he or did he agree?

“Maybe to some extent. But think it was a self-fulfilling prophecy in its own way. People start saying that then perception is reality. Anytime I got out to spin, people were like `you can`t play spin`. I probably started believing it myself,” he said.

He also went on to lament how the cricketing ecosystem Down Under never offered him any support in the early days of his career.

“I didn`t really get the support from the people around me at the time. I didn`t feel like the team really supported me. I didn`t feel like the coaching staff and selectors really supported me through that journey. It just made it so hard,” he stated.

“Whether I was or wasn`t, yes I`m a better player of spin now, no doubt about that, I have more shots, better defence. But I didn`t really get the opportunity to learn at that early stage. Fortunately enough, I am quite stubborn so went out of my own way to learn, then we had a couple of A tours here in India which helped a lot. Had to go back and figure it out all by myself.”

(With PTI inputs)