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‘Don’t Give A Crap…’: Usman Khwaja’s STUNNING Remark Ahead Of WTCead Of WTC Final
Top scorer of Austalia Test team Usman Khwaja opened up about his journey.
06 June 2023 • 1:20 PM
Usman Khwaja Source: ICC
New Delhi: The World Test Championship is just a day away, and India and Australia are going to face each other in the biggest clash on June 7 at the Kennington Oval in London. India has not been able to win a single ICC tournament since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Australia Star, Usman Khwaja, who scored over 300 runs, with 180 being his best and was the leading run opened up about his journey as he faced a long battle just to fit in with his teammates and earn their respect as a person.
“I definitely get to be myself more now. Two things. One, I don’t give a crap because I am older and I am at the backend of my career so I can do what I want,” he said.
“Two, these boys that I am playing with are guys that I grew up playing with. I grew up playing with a lot of them, playing for New South Wales.
“Starcy (Mitchell Starc), (Pat) Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood, (Steve) Smith and (David) Warner – all of these guys I grew up playing with so it makes it a lot easier to be myself. Even when I came into Australian cricket I was the young fella from a sub-continent background coming into a very white Australian cricket team.
“I found it very tough to fit into the mould. And there was a mould for Australian cricket at that time and that mould is not really there anymore,” he added.
Khawaja knows he is close to the end of his Test career at the age of 36 and is content in the knowledge he has played 60 Tests for Australia and scored 14 centuries for his country.
But it’s now more about what he can do to leave a legacy so the next player to come into the Australian line-up and don the famous Baggy Green will feel comfortable within the team environment and find it easy just to be themselves.
“Hopefully, slowly, I can be the first of many Usman Khawaja’s — both male and female — who come into the system who aren’t born in Australia and traditionally aren’t white Anglo Saxons,” Khawaja said.
“That is the reason I feel most comfortable now. One because I am a little older and comfortable with myself, but two also the guys in the team and around me make me feel more comfortable than I have ever been,” he added.