- “As many as you can,” Khawaja says about scoring in first innings.
- “It will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes,” opener says.
- Usman remained unbeaten with 127 from 266 deliveries on first day.
KARACHI: Australian batter Usman Khawaja said Saturday his side would like to score “as many [runs] as they can” during their first innings and have an upper hand on Pakistan.
Talking to journalists after the first day’s play, Khawaja termed Pakistan’s bowling tactic in the middle of the day as “negative” in the face of a hard-hitting Australian batting side.
“As many as you can,” Khawaja said while speaking to journalists via video link when he was asked how much Australia would like to post on the scoreboard during the first innings before letting Pakistan bat.
“It will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes. I think if we bat well enough tomorrow morning, we’ll have an opportunity to drive the game. I felt like Pakistan were in a perfect position last game but they just didn’t do it, they didn’t really take many opportunities to increase the run rate,” he said.
The opener said he was eyeing to take his side to 400 or 500 runs in the first innings, but noted that it was still a long shot as the current score was 251.
He mentioned that in the middle session of the first day, Pakistani spinners went a little bit “negative” to the legside, trying to slow the scoreboard.
“I don’t know if it backfired. And I think it’s pretty hard to bowl fast out there consistently. It’s very hot. So, I think spinners had to bowl in that sort of period,” he mentioned while discussing Pakistan’s strategy.
Usman remained unbeaten with 127 from 266 deliveries. Talking about his innings, the opening batter said that every century is special and it felt good when the crowd were chanting “Khawaja Khawaja”.
He also mentioned that he has relatives in Karachi and his relatives were present at the stadium when he scored the century.
“My family’s all from Karachi. I was born in Islamabad and my parents are from Karachi, so this one meant a lot too,” Usman said about his century at the National Stadium.
