The
Australian batsman was expected to provide match-defining innings but he hasn’t delivered enough when requiredIf you were in Dubai in early October 2018 then you might have seen something extraordinary. You would have been one of very few to do so, hidden as it was in the near-abandoned cricket stadium on the outskirts of that grimly glittering dystopia of a city. In heat nearing 50 degrees,
Pakistan bowlers laboured to dislodge the Pakistan‑born Australia batsman, Usman Khawaja, who resisted them across most of the fifth day of a Test.
Partly it felt warped to celebrate the effort from either side given how many far less privileged Pakistanis and others were labouring in the same heat on nearby construction sites, often with less control of their earnings or safety or ability to get home. But you still had to admire a masterclass in skill and perseverance, the longest fourth‑innings vigil in terms of both time and deliveries after Michael Atherton’s famous stand against
South Africa in 1995.