'Since the rise of India and IPL: Usman Khawaja on Australia's heightened desire to beat IND, 'just means a bit more'

Usman Khawaja, set to open the innings for Australia in the upcoming series, emphasized that both teams have been dominant forces in world cricket across all formats in recent years. "We have been consistently ranked as the top two teams in the world over the last couple of years. We were both contenders in the last World Test Championship as well. The rivalry between us has always been intense," Khawaja shared during an interview on Star Sports.

The series starts on November 22. Khawaja said that he takes it as a sign of respect and a proof of how good Australia have been that Indians want to beat them. “I take it as a sign of respect and I know it that Indians love beating Australia in any sort of form of cricket. And the tradition that Australia has had over so many years as being one of the dominating teams in world cricket has staked that reputation. I think, yeah, for Indians it's always been the case to beat Australia,” he said.

Khawaja said that India's rise as the superpower of world cricket and the team's increased consistency across formats has now given Australians a similar desire to beat them. India became the first Asian team to beat Australia in a Test series Down Under in the 2018/19 series and then extraordinary repeated that feat in their next visit in 2021/22 despite most of their main players being injured or unavailable.

|And more recently, you know, since the rise of India and IPL and everything else that happened, it's the same way with Australia against India. And particularly since India's beaten Australia in Australia the last two times they've come out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It just means a little bit more," said Khawaja.