'Khawaja ne baja diya Bazball ka baaja' - Fans react as Usman Khawaja smashes outstanding century in 1st Test of Ashes 2023

On June 16 at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England faced Australia in the highly anticipated 2023 series, reigniting one of cricket's most prestigious and hotly disputed rivalries. Fans can anticipate an exhilarating show of cricketing prowess as both teams are keen to win and take home the urn.

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Meanwhile, Australian veteran left-handed opener Usman Khawaja has given a calm but effective response to England’s ‘Bazball’ approach. Khawaja smashed a brilliant century in the 1st Test of the Ashes off 199 deliveries. He took out the Australian team from a troubling situation and is hoping for a big score.

Talking about the match, England won the toss and elected to bat first and despite losing wickets at some crucial stages of the innings, they kept hitting the ball out of the park to get quick runs and put the pressure back on the Australian bowlers. Zak Crawley gave a brilliant start to the team and scored 61 runs while former England skipper Joe Root smashed his 30th Test hundred. He was accompanied by Jonny Bairstow who played a 78-run knock of 78 balls and helped the team to achieve a total of 393 runs.

Brilliant batting display by England

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Australia’s veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon was the most successful bowler for the Kangaroos with 4 wickets. In reply, Australian openers Khawaja and David Warner started well but in the 11th over of the innings, Stuart Broad struck twice and dismissed Warner and the no. 1 ranked Test batter of the world Marnus Labuschagne and it looked that the Australian batting lineup will soon be wrapped up as Steve Smith was also dismissed on the score of just 16 runs by Stokes.

But Khwaja was later joined by Travis Head who recently smashed a century in the WTC final against India and both stitched a much-needed 81-run stand for the 4th wicket. However, Head departed after scoring a fifty but Khawaja continued to dominate from the other end.

Here’s how fans reacted:

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He showing how to bat in England to indians

— Aarizzain2.0🇵🇰 (@zainaariz432) June 17, 2023

He's the best Aussie opener in this modern era 🙏🏻

— Troll cricket unlimitedd (@TUnlimitedd) June 17, 2023

Did he had visa problems with England?

— GOAT RO45HIT (@sachinq518) June 17, 2023

Not better than padikkal

— Johnmuffa (@ictblood) June 17, 2023

Ye Inka one of the one of the sun sun k pagla gaya hu m

— @imAman (@AmanYelekar) June 17, 2023

Scoring against India in WTC final is not everyone’s cup of tea

— Spookie (@Spookie07) June 17, 2023

Vijay Shankar better than him tbh

— RO-STAN (@leftisrightnow_) June 17, 2023

Better opener than Vadapav 😭😭😭😭

— 🐦 (@Coverdrive__18) June 17, 2023