Australia batsman Usman Khawaja suffers hamstring injury

Perth, November 14 - In-form Australian batsman Usman Khawaja faces an anxious wait to determine the extent of a hamstring injury which he suffered while fielding after tea on Day Two of the second Test against New Zealand here on Saturday.

The hosts have already taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series and have amassed a mammoth total of 559/9 declared in the 1st innings of the second Test.

Khawaja pulled up lame while chasing down a ball in the outfield, and immediately clutched his left hamstring.

The first innings centurion looked despondent as he left the field alongside team doctor Peter Brukner, reports cricket.com.au.

It isn't Khawaja's first hamstring problem since his return from a knee reconstruction surgery earlier this year. He missed the majority of the Matador One-Day Cup campaign with Queensland due to a muscle strain suffered during sprint training. 

Prior to the first Test in Brisbane, Khawaja assured the media that both his knee and hamstring were fully recovered.

"I'm fine, I can do everything -- I can turn left and right, I am 100 percent," he had said.

"I have done a lot of rehab the past eight months, I just had to do it five days a week, non-stop, because I didn't want to come back after all that and not have done everything I can to come back and do it again. I had to make sure I ticked all the boxes to come back." 

A maiden Test hundred followed, in which Khawaja batted for more than six hours for his 174. The left-hander was at it again on Friday in oppressive heat, making 121 across another four-hour stint at the crease.

(IANS)