Having loved truthful diploma of success in previous couple of years, Australia opener Usman Khawaja termed dealing with the Ravichandran Ashwin-led Indian spin assault because the “hardest challenge” of the 4 match sequence starting in Nagpur on February 9. The Pakistan-born batter, who arrived in India after his teammates on account of a visa delay, will open the batting alongside David Warner. Khawaja has performed restricted overs cricket in India however will lastly get his alternative within the longest format after being a part of the Test squad in 2013 and 2017. Recently named Australia’s ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’, the southpaw is anticipated to play an enormous function in his workforce’s quest to win its first sequence in India since 2004-05.

“There’s definitely a different feel. There are no guarantees in this game, but at least there’s a bit more maturity particularly in the batting, and more maturity in the bowling.

“We’ve learnt quite a bit over the past 10 years, notably the forms of wickets we are able to get and the way we expect we are able to carry out and exit and win Test matches out right here. It appears like we’re in a greater spot than earlier than, however it’s at all times going to be powerful,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia opted out of playing a warm-up game ahead of the Test series and instead chose to simulate spin friend conditions near Bengaluru upon their arrival last week.

They 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 high-profile contest.

A team full of left-handers, Australia are working overtime to tackle the Ashwin threat.

“Ashwin is a gun. He may be very skilful, he’s obtained numerous tough little variations, he makes use of the crease fairly effectively too. If you requested me the identical query after I was youthful, I most likely would not have been capable of reply numerous issues as a result of I did not actually find out about learn how to face what off-spinners are doing,” said Khawaja.

“But it is a type of actually good challenges. The wicket’s going to show right here sooner or later, whether or not day one, day three or day 4, and he’s going to be within the recreation and bowl numerous overs.

“So it’s all about figuring out how I’m going to play against him, how I’m going to score runs against him, what he might do. If you bat a long time against him, he’s going to change his game plans against you.

“He’s not the sort of man who’ll do the identical factor time and again, he’ll attempt to work you out.” The visitors are expecting turning pitches in all four games, making the trio of Ashwin, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja more lethal with the new ball.

“If it is a good wicket, the brand new ball might be the best time to bat. But as quickly because the wicket deteriorates in India and you have got spinners bowling with a brand new ball, that is most likely the toughest time to bat wherever.

“When 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 it’s flat, but it’s not when it’s spinning when there’s so much variation with that new ball. Once it softens up it gets easier to predict what it’s going to do,” added Khawaja.

He additionally narrated his travails in reaching India.

“It was what it was – I just wanted to get over there to be honest. There’s a good Sydney flight straight from Sydney to Bangalore and I missed that unfortunately, which sucked.

“It was lengthy, I needed to go right down to Melbourne after which from Melbourne I obtained delayed going three hours from Sydney to Melbourne, so it took me 5 or 6 hours to get there.

“Then 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, I’m here now,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)

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