Khawaja Hunts For Redemption

- Adam Collins

Some days at the office are more memorable than others. As a Test cricketer, watching your team get skittled for 47 is the definition of unforgettable. In the week to come, an Australian team will return to the Newlands ground in Cape Town where exactly that took place. It’s rare to describe a player as lucky for being left out of a team, but in Usman Khawaja’s case that fateful afternoon in November 2011, he lucked in.

“Yeah, I was there,” he laughed, discussing his experience after having posted a confidence-boosting 75 in the Test just completed at Port Elizabeth.

“It was Pat Cummins and Trent Copeland who were doing 12th with me. I said, ‘Boys, I did my gym session earlier in the day, go do your gym session now, I’ll take care of this, we’re batting. This will be easy.’”

Well, not so much. “The ‘twelfthy’ sits right down the bottom and there are about 70 stairs to climb. Every time there was a wicket I would run up those stairs.

“A couple of times I ran up to get someone’s gloves and by the time I got up there they were out, so I had to put the stuff back down and grab the other kit. It really was unbelievable.”

Only Shaun Marsh and Nathan Lyon remain of the playing XI that day, and will feature alongside Khawaja and Cummins when the current series resumes under the shadow of Table Mountain, tied at one-all.