‘A hundred in India, as an Australian that’s what you want’: Khawaja

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Australia to the promised land but only a man originally stopped from entering India was able to make a significant impression.

Usman Khawaja continued his exceptional return to Test as the game’s most productive batsman since the beginning of last year, scoring an unbeaten 104 as his teammates failed to cash in on a rare benign Indian pitch after winning the toss and batting on Thursday.

Usman Khawaja celebrates his first century against India.Credit:Getty

Such was the pageantry that the toss was delayed as Modi, with Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at his elbow, did a lap of the ground in what can only be described as a cricket chariot.

Adulation and lining up with the teams for the national anthems done, the PMs cleared out about an hour after play started to do the tours and announcements which allies of convenience do.

The irony should be lost on no one that it was Khawaja, a Pakistani-born muslim, who dominated the cricket after Modi was choreographically feted at the huge Ahmedabad stadium named in his honour.

The stage-managed political fluff was exposed by Khawaja in the last over of the day’s play when he flicked a Mohammed Shami delivery through the leg side and danced with real, unbridled joy, celebrating his first century in India and first against India.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“To get a hundred in India, as an Australian that’s what you want to do,” Khawaja said after play.

Except to the modern Indian bureaucracy under Modi’s Hindu nationalist government the BJP. They saw Khawaja not as one of Australia’s finest cricketers but as a muslim born in Pakistan.

He was the only Australian player not to receive a visa to depart with the team on February 1 before the subsequent public fuss prompted a belated visa.

Khawaja suffered similar delays getting a visa to the 2011 Champions Trophy, causing Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW to petition the Indian High Commission.

While it plays well with the BJP domestically to take a strong line with muslims, Modi and his mates are particularly sensitive to criticism.

This was highlighted last month when Indian tax officials raided BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai after the BBC aired a two-part documentary, India: the Modi Question, examining 2002 sectarian riots when he was chief minister of Gujarat.

More than 1000 people died in the riots, most of them Muslims, with accusations the police were told to stand aside.

Modi was cleared by an Indian Supreme Court investigation through lack of evidence but banned from visiting the United States because of “very serious” doubts over the part he had played. The ban was lifted when Modi became prime minister in 2014.

Marnus Labuschagne is bowled by Mohammed Shami.Credit:Getty

This puts Shami in an awkward position as the only Indian muslim in the team.

Shami, the pick of India’s bowlers on Thursday, has been the scapegoat for poor India performances in the past with vile social media pile ons targeting his religion.

It reached a crescendo 18 months ago when India suffered a defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, prompting strong support for Shami from current and former teammates, particularly then captain Virat Kohli.

“Attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing that a human being can do. They have no understanding of how much effort we put on the field,” Kohli said at the time. “They have no understanding of the fact that someone like Shami has won India matches in the last few years.

Cameron Green attacked the second new ball to be unbeaten on 49.Credit:AP

“Honestly, I don’t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people and neither does Shami and neither does anyone else on the team.”

Sadly, this unswerving support for one of India’s finest was not reflected by Modi or anyone else from the BJP.

But while Modi won’t be at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday, Khawaja will resume his glorious innings.

If he can spend another day at the crease, with the encouraging support offered by young allrounder Cameron Green, Australia can bat India out of the match and chase what would be a remarkable, series-levelling win.

Because politics and religion will be stood aside for the joy of cricket.

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