Melbourne, Feb 2 () Australia’s key batter Usman Khawaja has got his visa approved and on Thursday morning flew out to India for the four-match Border-Gavaskar Test Series starting on February 9 at Nagpur.
Khawaja, Australia’s most prolific batter over the past 12 months, has had his visa for arrival into India approved and will fly out of Australia on Thursday morning to link up with the Test squad.
The batter, who was born in Pakistan but moved to Australia at a young age, put out a tweet on Thursday morning writing in Hindi, “India, meh araha hoon.”
The opening batter, who was this week crowned Australia’s Men’s Test Player of the Year for 2022, could not board a flight bound for Bengaluru on Wednesday having not yet been approved for a visa.
“The paperwork came through overnight on Wednesday and the 36-year-old was confirmed to fly out Thursday,” cricket.com.au reported.
Khawaja will join his team-mates at Bengaluru, where they will train at the facilities in Alur, about an hour out of the city, until Monday before moving to Nagpur for the series opener to be played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha from February 9 to 13.
The Aussie cricketers will get acclimatised to the conditions at Alur over the next few days as they are not scheduled to play a tour match before the start of the first Test.
Khawaja, with roots in the sub-continent, is expected to be a key player for Australia at the top as he has a strong partnership going on with David Warner, who has vast experience of playing in India in the IPL.
bsk