In Perth six years ago,Khawaja was bowled by a sharp,late reverse inswinger from Kagiso Rabada with a 40-over-old ball,a moment he recalled as incongruous relative to the way the ball usually behaved at the WACA Ground.
He also noted how the Proteas had got the ball to swerve in the second Test of the 2018 series in Port Elizabeth,during a series he agreed was not played in the right spirit and had been a watershed for the behaviour of the Australian men’s team. In his book,Du Plessis does not deny his side had also pushed the boundaries in search of movement.
“Even in the second Test of that series[in Port Elizabeth],South Africa reverse swung the ball before we did,” Khawaja toldThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Heraldat the Twenty20 World Cup game between India and Pakistan at the MCG. “So for him to say that ... they were reverse swinging it before we were. It’s easy pointing fingers but I remember Kagiso Rabada blew my stumps apart at the WACA,reverse swinging it first innings and that was after 40 overs.
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“So they were always very good at reverse swinging and it’s very rare to see reverse swing at the WACA other than on day five. So while he says that,there was a period of time where reverse swing was very prominent in the game. How every team was doing it,I can’t really speak for that,but I giggled to myself when I saw those comments.”
What Khawaja is more serious about is his strong belief that the Australian team had,as of early 2018,lost its way in a behavioural sense,and that he hoped this summer’s Test series against South Africa would be a chance to play the game very differently.