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You thought you knew Usman Khawaja. You thought he was flat-footed and feeble against spin. You thought he was nervous and indecisive at the crease. He was. But that was the old Ussie.
The new Ussie is an overhauled model and the positive signs have been there for quite some time. As I wrote last week, since Khawaja’s last brief stint in the Test team more than two years ago, the elegant left hander has renovated his game.
His most marked improvements have been in his play against spin and his shot selection outside off against the quicks.
When last we saw him donning the baggy green he was every spinner’s wet dream. Fixed to the crease, he prodded anxiously at the slow bowlers, who were afforded the luxury of maintaining a consistent length because of Khawaja’s poor feet-movement.
Spin bowlers love nothing more than a stationary target – a batsman who gets neither far enough forward to turn length balls into drivable deliveries, nor far enough back to regularly unfurl cross-bat strokes. Khawaja was this very cricketer.
It’s why champion England off-spinner Graeme Swann devoured the Queenslander. On the odd occasion that Khawaja did skip down the track to try to pressure Swann, he did so with a complete lack of conviction.
When he ventured out of his crease, Khawaja looked like a blind man who had left his guide dog at home. It had been remarked by some cricket followers in the lead-up to this series that Khawaja’s biggest challenge may come in trying to counter Mark Craig.
However, Khawaja had already served notice to the Kiwi spinner. In the recent tour match against New Zealand, Khawaja had cantered to an unbeaten hundred for the CA XI. In this match he was dismissive in his treatment of Craig, dropping on one knee to clatter him through or over the infield, piercing the offside whenever the Kiwi overpitched, and dancing down the track to loft him straight and long.
Michael Clarke in his pomp scarcely looked more commanding against spin than did Khawaja that day. It is this resounding improvement in Khawaja’s game that has the potential to unlock his full talent.
During his previous three stints in the Test team, he had numerous fluent starts against the pacemen, exploiting his swift judgment of length to move well into position. But, time and again, any confidence and momentum earned against the fast men swiftly eroded as spin reduced him to a groping novice.
New Zealand clearly were hoping that Craig may be able to tap back into this mental weakness. Immediately when Khawaja arrived at the crease, Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum introduced Craig and offered him what was an attacking field in the circumstances.
McCullum’s plan to unsettle Khawaja came undone in the space of two deliveries. Seven runs came from Craig’s first two balls to Khawaja, both of which were sliced away square of the wicket with an ease and assuredness that must have been like a slap in the face to McCullum and Craig.
If those scything cuts were open-handed blows, Khawaja soon landed a pair of savage hooks. Twice he shimmied down the track to Craig. Twice he dispatched him over the offside rope with a nonchalance and elegance which evoked Mark Waugh’s supreme play of slow bowlers.
Soon he was reaping the rewards of such assertive strokeplay: the benefit of using your feet to the spinners is how often they then overcorrect and gift you something short. Khawaja, the man who previously was tied in knots by spin, suddenly had scoring opportunities coming out of his ears against Craig.
So quickly was he in place to play his late cuts that Khawaja almost seemed to know those loose, short deliveries were coming. And why wouldn’t you? When you’ve manhandled a spinner on the front foot it’s a safe bet he’ll soon give you something to cut or pull.
In this mode, clever batsmen can make playing spin appear elementary. Granted, Craig is no Swann. Nor is he in the class of Pakistan’s Yasir Shah, Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath or Australia’s own Nathan Lyon. But there was plenty in the track for the spinner – sharp bounce and a reasonable amount of quick turn. Yet Khawaja left him bereft of ideas, just like Swann had done to the Australian what now feels like eons ago.
In between dismantling Craig, Khawaja showed the timing and placement against pace that was never in doubt. You always felt that when Khawaja banished his spin demons his handling of the quicks would flourish in tow.
So it was yesterday. The 28-year-old’s innings was not just an aesthetic joy, it was also imbued with a degree of intelligence, patience and positivity which gave you the feeling that the potential most of us have seen in Khawaja may yet be fully realised.
Day 1 at the Gabba was just the first, mesmerising step in what we can only hope will be a beguiling Test career.