Khawaja, who too made a transition from a middle-order batsman to an opener, believes McSweeney can not only score runs but also bat time. (Reuters)
Terming the need of an opening combination needing a fast scorer as a ‘myth’, Australian opener Usman Khawaja has put his weight behind his new opening partner Nathan McSweeney for the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy starting November 22. Khawaja, who had become the first Pakistan-born cricketer to play Test cricket for Australia when he made his debut in 2011, believes the key for opening is as much about scoring runs and being able to absorb time.
“I don’t know where this myth started that you needed someone to score really fast. As an opener you’re trying to score runs and you’ve got five days to do it. We didn’t have one Test match go for five days, last year. Opening is as much about scoring runs and just being able to absorb that time,” Khawaja told reporters in Perth on Thursday.
With one of the opening slots vacant since David Warner’s retirement, Australia were left pondering over the selection with names of McSweeney, Marcus Harris, Cam Bancroft and Sam Konstas in contention. McSweeney, who has so far played in 34 First Class matches with an average of 38.16, opened for the first time in his career during the second unofficial Test against India A last week. Khawaja, who too made a transition from a middle-order batsman to an opener, believes McSweeney can not only score runs but also bat time.
“Davey was special. He could score runs while absorbing. He could sometimes score 100 of 100 balls but he didn’t do it every time. Sometimes it took him 170, 180 balls to get that 100. He was consistent, he was out there, he was setting a platform for guys later to come in and score runs. Those two are both very important things, and I think Nathan does that really well. He can score runs, but he can also bat time. They’re really important facets to have in Test cricket if you want to set games up,” said Khawaja.
Both Khawaja and McSweeney have played for Queensland together earlier in their careers and the Australian opener’s advice to McSweeney is to “repeat the process”. “You just try to repeat the process. The only thing that really changes is that you have a few more people watching. Not many people watch Shield cricket. Something that Nathan has done really well throughout is that he’s obviously been able to handle the pressure at Shield level, and score runs consistently at Shield level from a young age … (but) like anything you have to experience playing Test cricket to be able to achieve and perform in Test cricket,” said the opener.
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