Veteran Australian opener Usman Khawaja backed his new opening partner Nathan McSweeney, urging him to play his own game against India in Perth rather than trying to ape David Warner, who was a “special player” in his own right. Approaching his 38th birthday, Khawaja, a veteran of 73 Tests with nearly five and half thousand runs and 15 tons, also believed that needing to score runs at a quick clip is nothing but an urban myth, and advised McSweeney to just “repeat the process” which has worked for him till date.”I don’t know where this myth started that you needed someone to score really fast. As an opener you’re trying to score runs and you’ve got five days to do it. We didn’t have one Test match go for five days, last year. Opening is as much about scoring runs and just being able to absorb that time,” Khawaja was quoted as saying by news.com.au.Talking about Warner, Khawaja said that not everyone is as gifted as his former opening partner, who could switch gears at ease in the traditional format.”Davey (Warner) was special. He could score runs while absorbing. He could sometimes score 100 of 100 balls but he didn’t do it every time. Sometimes it took him 170, 180 balls to get that 100.
