Usman Khawaja was at the receiving end of a nasty bouncer from Shamarh Joseph when Australia were closing on victory against the West Indies in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval.
In the seventh over of Australia’s run-chase on Day 3, Joseph bowled a bouncer and it caught Khawaja napping. The batter tried to move out of the line of the ball by taking evasive action, but the ball ended up hitting his helmet.
Khawaja was spitting blood, after which he went off the park ‘retired hurt’ by holding the left side of his cheek bone. Thereafter, Marnus Labuschagne came out to bat and hit the winning runs as Australia beat the Caribbean team by 10 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
Although the visitors lost the match, Joseph, who was amongst the three debutants along with Justin Greaves and Kavem Hodge, was highly impressive.
In the first innings, he finished with figures of 20-2-94-5 and helped West Indies restrict Australia to 283. The speedster got the wickets of Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Travis Head and Mitchell Starc to show his class on debut.
In the second innings, Joseph did not have a lot to do as he had figures of 1.4-0-7-0. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Joseph has secured his spot in the XI for the second Test, starting January 25 at The Gabba in Brisbane.
As far as Khawaja is concerned, it remains to be seen if he can recover in time for the second Test.