Star batter Usman Khawaja has been cleared to join his Australian teammates in India after his visa issues were sorted.
Pakistan-born Khawaja will fly out of Melbourne on Thursday, more than a day later than planned, after an anxious wait for his visa to be approved.
Approval for arrival into India can often be complex and time-consuming, but every other member of Australia’s 18-man squad was granted entry in time to take flights on Tuesday and Wednesday to their training camp in Bangalore.
The visa process for entry to India asks applicants whether they or their parents are of Pakistani origin.
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It is not the first time Khawaja, who was born in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, has faced visa challenges when trying to enter India.
Usman Khawaja plays a switch hit (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
In 2011, the batter took to social media to vent his frustration he had not been permitted to enter the country because he was not born in Australia.
On Wednesday, Australia’s opener posted a popular meme on Instagram along with the hashtags “stranded”, “dontleaveme”, “standard” and “anytimenow”.
The classy left-hander was not due to train with teammates in Bangalore on Thursday, regardless of his arrival status, and the team’s hierarchy is not concerned the delay will affect his preparation.
Khawaja, set to play his first Test match in India this month, has been cleared to enter the country on numerous occasions before.
He toured with the Test team in 2013, when he was part of the infamous homework-gate scandal with teammates James Pattinson, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson.
Khawaja also represented Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL in 2016, played for Australia A on an Indian tour in 2018, and toured again with the national ODI team in 2019 when he scored two centuries.
The blockbuster four-Test series against India begins in Nagpur on February 9.
Jofra back with a bang
Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan have struck superb centuries while Jofra Archer took six wickets as a resurgent England secured an emphatic 59-run victory over hosts South Africa in the third and final one-day International in Kimberley.
South Africa won the toss and asked England to bat on Wednesday, reducing the visitors to 3-14 before Buttler (131 from 127 balls) and Malan (118 from 114) shared a stunning fourth-wicket stand of 232 in a total of 7-346.
The home side were then always up with the run-rate, but lost wickets at regular intervals.
Heinrich Klaasen (80 from 62 balls) and opener Reeza Hendricks (52) top-scored, but Archer took a career best 6-40 as the hosts were bowled out for 287.
South Africa won the series 2-1 to keep alive their hopes of automatic qualification for the World Cup in India later this year, though they may still have to win both ODIs against Netherlands in March and April to make sure.
But the victory ended a run of five successive losses for England in ODI cricket as they build towards the defence of their world title.
“It is nice to finish with a win today and bar 10 or 15 overs in the first ODI we’ve played some brilliant cricket in a hard-fought series,” Buttler said at the post-match presentation.
“There were some really good strides, guys making hundreds is excellent and Jofra Archer’s performance tonight was excellent too. He broke the game open with wicket of Klaasen.
“We’ve got a strong squad and bar the recent results, we’re building nicely.”
England were in early strife when a triple early blow from Lungi Ngidi (4-62) had Jason Roy (1), Ben Duckett (0) and Harry Brook (6) back in the pavilion inside the sixth over.
After a period of consolidation, however, Buttler and Malan took to the bowling and smashed the home attack to all parts. England struck more sixes (19) in their innings than fours (16) as batsmen opted for power over finesse.
The visitors scored a remarkable 217 runs in the final 20 overs of their innings for their second total above 340 in as many matches.
A number of the South Africa batsmen got starts, but England kept chipping away with wickets as Archer proved easily the most impressive as he begins to find top form following his return from long-term injury.
Hussey fires up for Hundred
Michael Hussey is to take the reins as the new head coach of Welsh Fire men’s team in the third edition of The Hundred, English cricket’s flagship limited-overs event.
For the Australian batter known throughout the game as ‘Mr Cricket’, this is just the latest role in a busy post-playing coaching career that most recently saw him as a batting consultant to the England’s men team which won the T20 World Cup last November.
“I’m really looking forward to getting started at Welsh Fire and being part of The Hundred,” said the 47-year-old West Australian, who’s been appointed following the departure of Gary Kirsten in December.
“From a distance it looks a fantastic competition to be involved in, one that’s attracting big crowds and getting lots of kids interested in the game.
“For my part, hopefully I can get help get things moving in the right direction on the pitch in Cardiff and give all of those fans who’ve been coming to watch something to really get excited about.”
But it promises to be one of the tougher challenges for the man who played 302 internationals for Australia over all three formats as the Cardiff-based Fire have struggled over the first two years of the 100-ball-a-side competition and finished last in 2022.
At least that means his side will get first pick in this year’s competition draft which is scheduled to be broadcast for the first time on March 2.
McAndrew to join Smith on Sussex county duty
Steve Smith will get Australian company during his pre-Ashes stint at English county side Sussex in the shape of Sydney Thunder pace-bowling allrounder Nathan McAndrew.
The 29-year-old McAndrew will play from April until July in both the County Championship and the Blast, the English game’s premier T20 tournament.
The deal means he’ll link up at the south-coast county with Smith, who has been signed to play three county championship matches for Sussex in May as he seeks to acclimatise for the Ashes.
McAndrew has been snapped up by Paul Farbrace, the former England assistant coach who had previously signed the Wollongong player when he was sporting director at Warwickshire but who moved to Sussex in December as head coach.
Nathan McAndrew. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
McAndrew impressed Farbrace at Warwickshire, taking 20 wickets at 37.85 apiece and scoring 278 at 34.75, including two fifties.
“I can’t wait to get to England to play with Sussex,” said McAndrew, who took 13 wickets in the group stages for Thunder during the BBL season to help get them into the play-offs.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time in county cricket last year and I am looking forward to taking the next step in my career playing red and white-ball cricket this season. I look forward to teaming back up with Paul Farbrace and contributing to Sussex’s success.”
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