Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 : Ashwin will be most challenging bowler for us reveals current Australian batter

Usman Khawaja, the opening batsman for Australia, described confronting the Ravichandran Ashwin-led Indian spin attack as the “hardest test” of the four-match series, which begins on February 9 in Nagpur. The batsman, who was born in Pakistan but came in India after his colleagues because of a visa issue, will bat first with David Warner.

After being a member of the Test team in 2013 and 2017, Khawaja will now have the chance to play the longest format of cricket after playing limited overs cricket in India. The southpaw is anticipated to play a significant part in his team’s quest to win its first series in India since 2004–05. He was recently voted Australia’s “Test Cricketer of the Year.

“There is unquestionably a distinct vibe. Although there are no guarantees in this game, there is at least a little more maturity overall, especially in the batting and bowling.

“Over the last ten years, we’ve learned a lot, especially about the kinds of wickets we can get and how we think we can play and go out and win Test matches here. Although it appears that our situation has improved, the going will always be difficult, he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Prior to the Test series, Australia decided against playing a warm-up game and instead chose to recreate spin-friendly conditions in Bengaluru upon their arrival last week.

They possessed Ashwin’s “double” as part of their preparation for the high-profile match since they plainly regarded him as the biggest threat from the opposition.

Australian team, mostly having left-handers, is putting in extra effort to counter Ashwin’s threat.

Ashwin is a firearm. He is really skilled, has many tricky subtle variations, and also uses the crease fairly effectively. When I was younger, I didn’t really learn how to deal with what off-spinners are doing, so I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer a lot of your questions, said Khawaja.

However, it’s a truly enjoyable challenge. He will play in the match and bowl numerous overs when the wicket turns here, whether it is on day one, day three, or day four.

Determining how I’m going to play against him, how I’m going to score runs against him, and what he might do are the only things that matter. He will alter his strategy against you if you bat against him for a prolonged period of time.

He won’t repeatedly perform the same thing for you; instead, he will try to figure you out. In all four games, the visitors anticipate turning pitches, which will increase the trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Ashwin’s lethality with the new ball.

The new ball is arguably the easiest time to bat if the wicket is decent. But the toughest time to bat anyplace is certainly when the Indian wicket deteriorates and you have spinners bowling with a fresh ball.

“The new ball on a spinning wicket is always the most difficult period while we are practising. In the subcontinent, opening the batting is commonly believed to be the greatest strategy. While this is true when the ball is flat, it is not true when it is spinning because the new ball has so much variance. It becomes simpler to forecast what it will do after it softens “Khawaja added.

Some big players from both the teams reportedly might not be playing in the beginning matches of the series.