Australian batter Usman Khawaja said there were no shortcuts to playing quality England seamers such as Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood, especially on a difficult SCG pitch prepared by the curator, and added that his century was the result of "hard work" and "giving myself options" in the fourth Test.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Khawaja, playing Test cricket after more than two-and-a-half years, ground out a 260-ball 137 as Australia put up an imposing 416 for eight declared on Day 2 of the fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The home team bowlers then restricted England to 107\/4 midway through the second session on Day 3 on Friday to be ahead by 309 runs. Australia have already retained the Ashes, taking an unassailable 3-0 lead after the Boxing Day Test at MCG.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Ahead of Day 3 of the Test on Friday, the 35-year-old Khawaja explained how tough it was to negotiate the England fast bowlers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Jimmy Anderson is always very disciplined. He never really goes for more than two runs an over, you almost have to accept that (facing) him. I don't try too much there. The same with (Stuart) Broad, but he's a bit more attacking, and then (Mark) Woods is attacking too. I knew their (England) fast bowlers were going to be tough on that day one and two wicket. The spinners were a bit easier," Khawaja was quoted as saying by sen.com.au.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It also helped I guess with Stokesy (Ben Stokes) going down, they had one less bowler which is always nice as a batsman. They have to bring the other guys on more and make them work a bit harder."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Khawaja, who scored his ninth Test century (137), added that he works hard on giving himself options to play as many strokes as possible to unsettle the bowlers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I work really hard on giving myself options, I feel like I can do everything now. I can come down and use my feet if I need to, I can sweep, I can reverse sweep. If you start doing that to bowlers, it makes it really hard for them to set fields, because there's always a gap somewhere.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"That's all I'm really trying to do, manipulate fields, trying to put fielders where I want. It took me a long time to learn that part of my game," he added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The century on Thursday would have already brightened his chances for selection on Australia's tour of Pakistan in March-April this year.<\/p>\r\n\r\n