January 5, 2023. Usman Khawaja ended the second day of the Sydney Test against South Africa with a thrilling feeling. Who knows whether the Australian opener spent that night sleepless! If you are 5 runs away from the first double century of the career, then the pressure of the nerves will disappear.
What a surprise, at the end of the third day of the Test, Khawaja had to go to bed with the same feeling. It rained the whole third day. The morning session of the fourth day was also washed out by rain. In the second session, when cricket finally resumed on the field, South Africa’s two openers came down to bat, not Khawaja! Desperate to win the match, Australian captain Pat Cummins declared the innings with Khawaja on 195 runs.
Khawaja was only the third batsman in history to see the captain declare the innings standing in the house of 190. The previous two are legends, but less is said, Frank Worrell, one of the West Indies’ ‘Three W’s, Sachin Tendulkar of India. Sitting next to the two legends could not reduce Khawaja’s ‘pain’ too much.
Two years later, in another January, Khwaja finally saw ‘200’. The left-handed batsman picked up the first double century of his 79-Test career at the Galle International Stadium today. Khawaja became the oldest Australian player to score a double century after Sir Don Bradman at the age of 38 years and 43 days.
Don Bradman, one of the greatest batsmen of all time, scored the last two of a dozen double centuries in his Test career at the age of 38. Don was 38 years and 108 days old on the day he opened the match against England in Sydney in 1946. He was 39 years and 149 days old when he scored 201 against India in Adelaide after 13 months.
Khawaja finally returned with a double century with 232 runs. This is the highest innings by an Australian in a Test against Sri Lanka. Khawaja surpassed Michael Slater’s innings of 219 at the WACA in 1995.
Among the Australian batsmen, only two Australian batsmen have scored more runs than Khawaja – Mark Taylor and Greg Chappell. Taylor declared the innings unbeaten on 334 against Pakistan in Peshawar in 1998. The Chappell brothers scored 235 against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 1980.