The Ashes: Usman Khawaja leads Aussie response with classy hundred

A shriek of delight rippled through the ground, before the collective applause of the crowd drowned it. When the ground paused, took a deep breath and gathered back to their seats, Usman Khawaja was on the practice pitch beside the centre square, still roaring and celebrating his first hundred in England. The moment, as vital as it was for Australia on the day, blended seamlessly with the larger narrative of Khawaja’s redemption saga over the last two years.
A bad player of spin in Asia; he would score two hundreds in Pakan. An asmal record in India; he would correct it with a 180 in Ahmedabad. Vulnerable in English condition, as his average of 19 in 12 innings before this game suggested; he stroked a hundred of liberation. This has been Khawaja’s mission since his Test comeback, to tick the boxes that had remained un-ticked, to finally translate his un-blossomed potential into match-defining knocks. This surely would count among his finest hours — a first Ashes Test, the team in trouble, the skies dark and gloomy for most part, Bazball-drunk England sniffing a kill. From 29/2, he revived them to 311/5, still 82 runs in arrears, the match still on a knife-edge and unfolding to be a potential thriller.
Take his unconquered 126 out, and the picture looks grim. The hundred took time to sink in. He faced the next few balls after reaching three figures in a state of trance. He almost got himself out, Moeen Ali snapped past his outside edge.

🍿 Another thrilling day of Test cricket draws to a close…
Catch all the highlights right here! 👇#EnglandCricket | #Ashes
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 17, 2023
But soon, he re-acquainted himself with reality and cobbled up an unbeaten 91-run alliance with Alex Carey. He could not afford to get out, there was danger still lurking, there was a match on the balance, and there were battles yet to be won. It seemed the central purpose of his batting too — at all costs do not get out. The latest iteration of Khawaja has cut all the frills of his youth. He has eschewed the booming drive, the unsure dabs and steers, the laidback slashes. He has traded those facets of batting that made him attractive to watch for a more mechanical but successful method.
He is still attractive to behold, but does not induce gasps of awe. His defending methods are minimal but adequate —shuffle forward to block on the front foot, draw that leg away to make space to defend off the back foot.
Application the key
Discipline is the guiding light of his batting. He was a tad loose against India in the World Test Championship final, so he steeled his game, especially outside the off-stump. He barely drove, he would rather push the ball, close to his body, under his eyes. The drive was his biggest enemy in England — that still short front-foot stride tells one why he had failed here. The semi-open stance makes him more vulnerable to getting squared up, which Stuart Broad managed with the second new ball. This came soon after Broad had snuck one through his gate and splattered the stumps, only that he had over-stepped. But then he was already on 112. The only other reprieve was a difficult catch Jonny Bairstow shelled on 77.

Diet Cokes all round!
Well batted, @Uz_Khawaja #Ashes pic.twitter.com/UVKJATCsBz
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 17, 2023
For much of the day, Khawaja hardly drove on the up, or stabbed or slashed on the offside. James Anderson and Broad beat him once apiece, in the eighth and ninth overs of the game, but apart from those instances, he was impenetrable. Anderson slanted it across him from over the wicket, and often threatened to shape it back. Khawaja would adeptly judge the lengths and retaliate. He knew the perils of leaving the ball on length in England. So he would defend everything that was in line with the stumps, and leave everything that was even marginally outside. It aided him that whenever Anderson tried to swing the ball back, he would err in length (short enough for him to get behind the line) or line. One of the three boundaries he stroked in the first session was a leg-side half-volley Anderson. The other two were pulls when Broad erred on the short-of-good-length side.
Khawaja unfurls the pull in the old-fashioned way, transferring the weight onto the back foot and swivelling, tracing a semi-circle in the follow-through. It was his most productive stroke too. Eight of his 14 fours were pulls, and not necessarily off short balls. It instructed how he batted —waited for the bowlers to get short, which he forced upon them defending stoutly and leaving discreetly. It was what the situation commanded him to do too — after a sturdy start, Australia had lost David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne off successive Broad balls. Before lunch, Steve Smith departed too.
Leading the fightback
At 29/2 and 67/3, Australia wanted a presence of calm defiance. Khawaja assumed the responsibility. He took his time to squeeze the vim out of contests, out of pitches, and out of bowlers. His fierce powers of concentration were almost meditative; the rhythm was uninterrupted, the tempo unshifting.
Only the sight of Moeen drew attacking responses. It made sense too, as Ali was turning his off-breaks sharply and purchasing drift. In mood, he could have reopened the wounds of the tour to India. He could have made Edgbaston look like Delhi or Nagpur. He produced a beauty to nail Cameron Green after he had nipped Travis Head’s counterpunching 50 off 63 balls. So Khawaja would glide down the track and smear a couple of sixes down the ground. Once, he lofted him through extra-cover for a four. Ali began serving short balls, which he disdained with glee. Then off the 200th ball he faced, he completed his first hundred in England. And let out a shriek of delight.