Usman Khawaja: When I am scoring runs I’m elegant, when I’m not I’m lazy | Adam Collins


The Australia batsman fired back at the criticism that has dogged his Test career with a memorable first Ashes century, achieved in his home town

Lazy. Soft. Doesn’t care. Mark Waugh heard it all and more from the moment he came out of the Test cricket womb until his final Baggy Green breath. It drove him mad. “Why on Earth wouldn’t I do my best when there’s so much at stake?” he wrote before retiring. “I’ve carried that ‘casual, lazy’ tag for years, a bit like England’s David Gower. It just isn’t true.” Speaking a decade on from giving it all away, it still riled him. “I got pigeonholed,” he said. “But you don’t play 100 Tests if you’re not a tough player, and I played in winning teams.”

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