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The key stat that highlights Usman Khawaja's struggles so far this Test summer
SEN • December 26th, 2024 11:28 am
Usman Khawaja is yet to have much of an impact on this Test summer, with scores of 8, 21, 9*, 13, 4 and 8 to his name so far.
SEN Cricket analyst Tom Morris pointed out a key reason for that, with the veteran opener’s once solid defence against Indian star bowler Jasprit Bumrah failing him.
“Before this series, Khawaja had faced 154 balls from Bumrah in Test cricket without being dismissed,” Morris told SEN’s The New Ball.
“He’d only scored 43 runs – not scoring much, but hadn’t been dismissed.
“This summer, he’s been dismissed four times from 71 balls and he’s averaging 4.5.
“So every four and a half runs he makes against Bumrah, he gets out and he hasn’t been proactive.”
Co-host Bharat Sundaresan agreed, saying Khawaja has struggled to escape from the Indian champion so far this summer.
“Every time he’s tried to get out of the Bumrah jail, he’s been caught. The last ball of the sixth over in Adelaide, it was similar at the Gabba as well,” he said.
“He’s just not been able to get away from Bumrah, despite the fact that he doesn’t take the first ball which is when Bumrah operates.”
Play gets underway at 10:30am AEST and you’ll hear every ball of the series live on SEN and the SEN App.
