‘Never expected to score Test century in India’

AHMEDABAD: Australia opener Usman Khawaja was pleased as punch after completing a special Test century on Indian soil.

It is an accomplishment that he had not dreamt of, having carried the drinks on his previous Test tours of India in 2013 and 2017. On the opening day of the fourth and final Test against India here, Khawaja batted for six hours to score an unbeaten 104 out of the visiting team’s 255 for four.

“I do not think that I have ever smiled so much after getting a century, there was emotion in it. I have done two (Test) tours of India before. Carried the drinks for eight Test matches before I got a chance here (this series),” Khawaja said.

“Throughout the middle [phase] of my career, I got told that I could not play spin and that was why I never got an opportunity to play in India. It is just nice to go out there and tick off a hundred in India. If you had asked me five years ago… if you told me that [I would score a ton], I would have thought that you were crazy. There was a lot of emotion, I just never expected this to happen,” added the 36-year-old Khawaja.