Australian opener Usman Khawaja played one of the best innings of his career on Thursday in the ongoing fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. He batted the whole day and scored an unbeaten century on day 1 and helped Australia to put up a strong total.

Post hitting the century, Khwaja disclosed that he asked Cameron Green, who was batting with him then, to hug him after he reached his century.

Speaking after the game Khawaja said, “It was a mental battle more than anything else. You need to keep doing it for a long time. I had the helmet in my right hand, I told him (Green) just give me a hug, instead of a high five (following his century). I have no superstitions, I stretched a bit in the morning and I was ready to go.

Yesterday was a *very* good day for Usman Khawaja, who will resume day two on 104no #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/J8xe3zbY55

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) March 10, 2023

“A lot of emotion in that. It has been a long journey, getting a hundred. As an Australian, you always want to do that. It’s very special. Travis Head took the new ball down. He was smacking them. Was pretty good to watch that from the other end. It was such a nice wicket, I didn’t want to give my wicket away,” he added.

Australia ended the day at 255 for four at stumps. Opener Khawaja and Cameron Green were on the crease on 104 and 49 respectively when day 1 ended.

Earlier, Steve Smith won the toss and decide to bat first, Australia started well with Khawaja and Travis Head adding 61 runs for the opening wicket. Ravichandran Ashwin then helped India with their first breakthrough after he dismissed Head for 32. Pacer Mohammed Shami starred with the ball as he took 2 for 65.