Usman Khawaja calls Sydney wicket a ‘stinker’, Steve Smith says it ‘was toughest SCG pitch I’ve played on’

Usman Khawaja might have ended up on the right side of the result, and Pat Cummins declared the veteran opener would be persed with later. But it didn’t stop the Aussie opener from speaking his mind about the surface and the tension it wrecked inside him.
He called the wicket a ‘stinker’ that had kept him on knife’s edge.
“I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t want to talk about it too much beforehand, but the wicket was a stinker,” Khawaja told ABC Grandstand post the BGT reclaiming after a 3-1 win. “It wasn’t like a traditional SCG wicket with the new grass on it, there’s cracks all over it, it’s been tough batting, the scoreboard will tell you that. Thankfully we were on the right side of the win but when it’s a wicket like that you’re always on a knife edge,” he added to ABC.
Steve Smith went a step further to dissect the vile strands of the wicket, after chucklingly admitting he had been shredded – at 9999 career runs, at that. “I got chainsawed didn’t I! Pretty nasty delivery actually; back of a length, I thought ‘oh, there’s one to punch through point’ and it just took off. It wasn’t to be (reaching 10k Test runs), but that’s alright we got the result we were after,” he told Triple M, after Prasidh Krishna packed him off.
He admitted the Sydney track had bounced his brain off, describingthe wicket. “Absolutely (toughest SCG pitch I’ve played on). a mile. It was two-paced, up and down, seaming all over the place, swinging. I’ve never played on a wicket like that at the SCG before. It was incredibly difficult to bat,” he was quoted as saying Triple M.
“I love the game, it’s been a fun series, India are an unbelievable team. There’s been some great challenges, Bumrah in particular. It’s been great fun and fortunate to get the result in the end,” he added, the joy of the win washing over the disappointment of not making 10K.

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