Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023: Ashwin 'biggest threat' for Australia, reckons Usman Khawaja

Having enjoyed fair degree of success in past couple of years Australia opener Usman Khawaja termed facing the Ravichandran Ashwinled Indian spin attack as the hardest challenge of the four match series beginning in Nagpur on February 9The Pakistanborn batter who arrived in India after his teammates due to a visa delay will open the batting alongside David WarnerKhawaja has played limited overs cricket in India but will finally get his opportunity in the longest format after being part of the Test squad in 2013 and 2017Recently named Australias Test Cricketer of the Year the southpaw is expected to play a big role in his teams quest to win its first series in India since 200405Theres definitely a different feel There are no guarantees in this game but at least theres a bit more maturity particularly in the batting and more maturity in the bowlingWeve learnt a lot over the last 10 years particularly the types of wickets we can get and how we think we can perform and go out and win Test matches out here It feels like we are in a better spot than before but its always going to be tough he told the Sydney Morning HeraldAlso Read Australia ropes in Ashwin duplicate to combat spin ahead of BorderGavaskar TrophyAustralia opted out of playing a warmup game ahead of the Test series and instead chose to simulate spin friend conditions near Bengaluru upon their arrival last weekThey clearly see Ashwin as the biggest threat from the opposition so much so that they got hold of his duplicate as part of their preparation for the highprofile contestA team full of lefthanders Australia are working overtime to tackle the Ashwin threatAshwin is a gun He is very skilful he is got a lot of tricky little variations he uses the crease quite well too If you asked me the same question when I was younger I probably wouldnt have been able to answer a lot of things because I didnt really learn about how to face what offspinners are doing said KhawajaBut its one of those really good challenges The wickets going to turn here at some point whether day one day three or day four and he is going to be in the game and bowl a lot of oversSo its all about figuring out how Im going to play against him how Im going to score runs against him what he might do If you bat a long time against him hes going to change his game plans against youHes not the kind of guy wholl do the same thing over and over hes going to try to work you outAlso Read Injured Josh Hazlewood set to miss first Test doubtful for second game tooThe visitors are expecting turning pitches in all four games making the trio of Ashwin Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja more lethal with the new ballIf its a good wicket the new ball is probably the easiest time to bat But as soon as the wicket deteriorates in India and youve got spinners bowling with a new ball thats probably the hardest time to bat anywhereWhen we train the new ball on spinning wickets is always the hardest time People assume opening the batting is the best time to bat in the subcontinent it is when its flat but its not when its spinning when theres so much variation with that new ball Once it softens up it gets easier to predict what its going to do added KhawajaHe also narrated his travails in reaching IndiaIt was what it was I just wanted to get over there to be honest Theres a good Sydney flight straight from Sydney to Bangalore and I missed that unfortunately which suckedIt was long I had to go down to Melbourne and then from Melbourne I got delayed going three hours from Sydney to Melbourne so it took me five or six hours to get thereThen I got delayed again from Melbourne to Delhi by four hours again so just delays after delays after delays Still a little bit groggy from the flight Oh well Im here now he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever