As an opener, he pioneered his innings at the crease and consistently made runs in all three sessions, reaching his century in the last over of the day.
The left handed opener is still on crease with 104 off 251 balls. Travis Head (32 runs off 44 balls) once again gave Australia a stable start which they were missing when David Warner was opening for the team. It was a good pitch for batting, and Australian batters made the best out of it, batting sensibly yet scoring runs when oppertunity came through.
The Australian captain Steve Smith got the start but he couldn’t convert ut into big innings, maybe a laps on concentration was the reason. He scored 38 runs off 135 balls, full of patience and determined to play big innings but it was cut short by Ravindra Jadeja who bowled him. Marnus Labuschagne lost his wicket playing a lose shot on Shami’s delievery.
Peter Handscomb was looking good on the crease, but Indian pacers bowled well in the first hour of third session. A number of tough short balls got better of Handscomb as he was stuck in crease when Shami sent the stumps cartwheeling with a moving away delivery on good length.
Australia scored 54 runs in last 9 overs of the day 1 game, the new ball that also provides the opposite for wicket, wasn’t well used by pacers who looked tired playing more than 80 overs game in stifling conditions. Cameron Green made best use of the new ball, as he went on to score 49 runs off 63 balls. His innings definitely shifted the momentum in Australia’s favour at the moment.
The match was equally shared by both teams in middle overs, Australia didn’t run away with game even though they lost no wicket, Indian bowlers were quite strict with their line and lengths, not giving much opportunity to score runs.
The day particularly belonged to Usman Khawaja, he just produced what Australia needed very badly, a good batting effort full of vigour, perseverance and patience. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne will be unhappy with their shot of choice but as a team, they will be rejoicing the wonderful 100 by Usman Khawaja that has cleary put them ahead in the game on day 1.
STUMPS
4th Test, Ahmedabad, March 09 – 13, 2023, Australia tour of India
AUS (90 ov) 255/4
Usman Khawaja 104 runs
Cameron Green 49 runs
Day 1 – Australia chose to bat.