This is how one should make a comeback
I always thought that the International cricket is a toughest arena to showcase a cricketer's skills and test cricket is always a bigger challenge to a cricketer who is making a comeback after years to his national side, but there were some cricketers in the past and now there is one Usman Khawaja from Australia who has proved that this is very easy work for them,today I 'll be only discussing about Khawaja, who made his comeback for Australia against England in the recently concluded Ashes test series.
The last time Khawaja represented Australia was on August 2019 and was dropped due to form related issue, it took him almost 3 years to get back to the Aussie squad for the third test which was played in Sydney cricket ground, but he was selected as a replacement player as Travis Head was found out to be covid positive and Khawaja was aware that he require something special to keep his place in the team and indeed he put up a special show.
He walked in the field to bat with the match was still evenly poised, at 117/3 the game can still go either way but Khawaja (137) stitched important partnership with Steve Smith (67), and with some valuable contributions from Carey (13), Skipper Cummins (24), Starc (34) and Lyon (16) Australia declared at a healthy looking 416/8.
In the second innings Australia (despite leading) were again in trouble at 68/3 when Khawaja makes his way in, at 86/4, it seemed like England were all over Australia, but then both Khawaja (101) and Green (74) stitched an important 179 runs partnership and took the match away from England's grasp.
Not only with the bat but Khawaja also marked his excellence in the field as well, he took two catches which eventually helped Australia to get a good lead.
While almost every one struggled to score runs Khawaja scored tons in both of the innings, interestingly, Khawaja made his debut on the very same ground in the Ashes test series (January 02- 06,2011), another interesting fact is that it is only the third time twin centuries were made in the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, before Khawaja, Ricky Ponting made twin centuries in the very same ground (year: 2006) against South Africa .
Also what a special innings from Johny Bairstow, after a long time England also showed resilience on the field its actually a major comeback from Bairstow considering the way their performance was in2021 and it seemed like England would like to make the year 2022- the year for their major comeback.
I would love to write about England's comeback but their batting performance in 5th test match led to their downfall in the series yet again as they lost the series 4- 0, with the Sydney test ended up as a draw.
I would again like to return to Khawaja, after the huge comeback, Khawaja has almost made it sure that it would be tough for selectors to drop him and despite his double failures in the 5th and final test match as an opener I am hoping that he will get a longer run this time.
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