Not only did Usman Khawaja's Edgbaston century tick a massive box for his own career, it kept his team alive in the Ashes opener and handed his teammates a blueprint on how to approach the series.
The clouds were heavy, the angry mob was baying for blood, and the tall blonde assassin with the white headband had that look in his eye.In the space of two deliveries, Broad removed David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne and threatened to make the defining statement of this first Ashes Test.
It's so evident when he bats. Khawaja exists inside his own bubble, never getting sucked into the mini-battles or the mind games this England team is so effective at creating.And on this day more than most, his team needed that calm head. Steve Smith failed to find any fluency, the leg-side-dominant field stifling his most natural scoring shots. Eventually, Ben Stokes snuck one through, conclusively LBW on review despite Smith's indignation.
But all the while Khawaja played his own game, completely insulated from whatever fires threatened to break out at the other end.
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