Allan Border's Assessment of Usman Khawaja After Another Disappointing Fall to Jasprit Bumrah: 'He's Got to Step Up'

Australia showed a significant increase in pace during the ongoing third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test match at the Gabba in Brisbane, surpassing Perth and Adelaide. The hosts ended the second day at 405/7 in 101 overs, with Alex Carey (45*) and Mitchell Starc (7*) standing strong at Stumps. Jasprit Bumrah excelled for the visitors, claiming five wickets.

Despite being in a strong position early, the Australian management will have to plenty to think about, when it comes to opener Usman Khawaja’s form. In his 18 most recent Test knocks, the left-handed opener has only managed one half-century, and his latest was 21 on Sunday.

On Saturday in the fourth over, he unnecessarily dived to make up ground during a quick single. He also looked nervous as he worked with his pads between balls, and also kept on adjusting his helmet.

In this series, he has been unable to deal with Jasprit Bumrah’s opening spell. On Saturday, he took advantage of Bumrah’s inaccurate balls as he got some boundaries on a day affected by rain. Then on the final ball of Bumrah’s opening spell, he poked at a wide ball, which went past wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

On Sunday, Bumrah found form again, and beat Khawaja’s outside edge on three consecutive deliveries, before Khawaja tickled a length ball to Pant. He left for 21, and has averaged 5.67 vs Bumrah in this series.

Speaking to Fox Cricket, legend Allan Border pointed out that Khawaja was slowing down due to his age. He is already 37-years-old.

“Naturally your body slows down,” he said.

“Even while I was batting (in my late thirties), I’d think, ‘Gee I’d normally cut that’. But I’d let it go.

“It would take a lot longer (to score runs) than it did when I was 28, just through the foot movement and reaction time, to pick the ball up and play the right shot.

“As I got older, you’re that yard behind. Even cover drives would squirt through for one rather than a four.

“It’s just those reaction times.”

Border also warned Khawaja that if he wanted to continue, he needed to train harder. “He’s got to really do those hard yards,” he said.

“If that (motivation) drops off, you’ll almost guarantee that your game will drop off.

“He’s naturally a very good player … he’s put a lot of work in, don’t get me wrong, but (he needs to) keep maintaining that, and more.

“He’s got a young family now, those things then start taking priority away from the game. Maybe you start cutting corners with training, and that’s when you can drop off a little bit. That’s when people start saying, ‘Oh he’s 38, maybe it’s time to move on.’

“It just depends on his priorities, whether he has that hunger. Because as you get older, you can’t cut any corners,” he added.

On Day 3, India will look for early wickets and look to get done with the Aussie first innings soon. If Carey and Starc manage to build a partnership, things could look really dreary for India.