Australia’s Usman Khawaja finally struck form after he scored a century to give Australia a massive lead over Sri Lanka as the tourists battle to stay in the second Test at Canberra on Sunday.
The 32-year-old’s place in the squad was in doubt after he had a poor summer with a lone high-score of just 72 across six Tests as Australia lost a Test series to India at home for the first time.
He admitted it had been a tough few months on and off the field, with his brother being arrested and charged in December for trying to influence a witness over a case where he allegedly framed a love rival with a fake terror plot.
Khawaja revealed that his brother Arsalan’s arrest affected his focus on cricket. “It’s been tough, it’s something you don’t expect to happen,” he was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfoafter scoring his eighth Test ton off 134 balls.
“My family’s very close to me and I’m very close to my family, so at some level yeah I think it made it tougher to go out and concentrate and execute my skills and at the same time while I was playing cricket you sort of forget about everything because you’re only concentrating on cricket,” the southpaw added.
“But it was very taxing, it has been very taxing mentally... feeling a lot better now than I was probably a month or two ago, but its’ been a tough couple of months off the field,” he added.
Arsalan Khawaja was released on bail in early December after appearing in a Sydney court on charges of forgery and attempting to pervert justice, but was charged again.
He was re-arrested “after allegedly attempting to influence a witness” in the counter-terror investigation, a New South Wales state police spokeswoman told AFP.
Sri Lankan Mohamed Nizamdeen was arrested in August over a “hit list” written in a notebook, which outlined plans to kill then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. But police released Nizamdeen in September and later dropped the charges after investigators could not link the handwriting in the notebook to him. Investigators said they believe Arsalan Khawaja set up his university colleague Nizamdeen in relation to a dispute over a woman.
Khawaja also credited his wife for being a source of support through the tough times. “It’s just been really nice to have my wife Rachel with me for the majority of the tours and she’s been awesome, just to have her around and to go and travel with me, she’s been my rock throughout the whole thing,” he said.
It was Australia’s fourth century of the match after Joe Burns, Travis Head and Kurtis Patterson reached the milestone in the first innings. It came as welcome runs as none of the batsman had managed to cross the three-figure mark over the summer against India.