Adaptability is key against India, says Khawaja
Australia's top-order batsman Usman Khawaja believes adaptability is going to be the key during their limited-over series against India and said they would look to draw from their past experience of playing in the country
Ahead of the first T20 International between India and Australia in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, Aussie star batsman Usman Khawaja said his squad needs to adapt to whatever they get from the good batting pitches in India. The top-order batsman believes that lots of players in the touring side have had some really good performances in the past, so they can possibly draw from that during their limited-over series against the hosts.
"I played in that T20 (World Cup) and the wickets were really nice," said Khawaja, who played six Indian Premier League matches for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant in India.
"I found there was probably one wicket that spun a fair bit in Dharamsala, the other ones in Mohali (twice) and Bangalore were pretty good batting surfaces," he was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
"You just have to adapt to whatever you get here. As the Australian cricket team, a lot of guys have had some really good performances in India in the past, so I think we can draw from that."
Khawaja, who is currently in Hyderabad, said Australia has a lot of flexibility in their batting line up and exuded confidence that the visitors will do well in the series.
"There's a lot of good players in this team, which is awesome," Khawaja said.
"It's good to have options. A lot of guys that are in this team are quite flexible on where they can play so whatever happens moving forward I think everyone will do quite well in whatever role they have," added the left-handed batsman.
Australia will play the second T20I in Bangalore on February 27, before competing in the five-ODI series.