On Friday, Usman Khawaja reached his eighth half-century in Test cricket in the ongoing series against Pakistan by smashing a Yasir Shah delivery to the boundary. The talented Australian left-hander, though, found a one-of-a-kind way to celebrate the milestone. Instead of the usual “showing his bat to the crowd”, Khawaja pulled off the “dab”, a sort of dance move, that led to plenty of laughter in the Australian dressing rooms.
But what exactly is this “dab”?
Here’s how Wikipedia describes it, “a dance move in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm and the elbow in a gesture that has been noted to resemble sneezing”. It originates from Atlanta in the United States and has (quite obviously) spread across the entire world.
A tutorial for handy reference:
It did not take long before it entered the world of sport. Some of its most high-profile proponents are footballers Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard and the NBA’s LeBron James among others.
And now Khawaja has brought into cricket. He admitted that he had decided to execute the move after discussions with team mates in the lead up to match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. “We’ve been joking about it (the dab) all week,” Khawaja said. “Renners [Matt Renshaw] and a few of the other lads have been talking about it so when I got to fifty I thought ‘just dab’.”
But then this is Test cricket, the oldest form of the game. And there were quite a few who did not find anything funny about Khawaja’s celebrations:
The only 'dab' I know of is a deftly glided shot to third man. No idea how it relates to whatever the hell Khawaja did there #wwos #AUSvPAK
— Ian Chappell (@IanChappelli) January 6, 2017
Just seen the Khawaja dab. Prepare the bails for cremation; test cricket is dead. #AUSvPAK
— Paul Wissam (@pjwiss) January 6, 2017
