"You’re c**p, you’re s**t" - Usman Khawaja opens up on horrible crowd experience during Ashes 2023

Australian opener Usman Khawaja claimed that the experience that he had in England with the crowd during Ashes 2023, was 'worse' than he had ever seen.

The southpaw felt that the crowd was a bit too aggressive on the visitors and some of it felt unnecessary. Khawaja reckons the Bazball ideology had an effect on the crowd as well as they seemed to be a whole lot more aggressive than they usually do.

Here's what Usman Khawaja was quoted as saying by Wisden:

“The crowd this time was far worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. That second morning at Edgbaston, getting sprayed left, right and centre. I had some of the strongest language and aggression directed at me of all my cricket trips. The vibe was so different and it felt more like a football crowd. Maybe Bazball helps to attract a different dynamic. This was constant chat along the lines of, ‘You’re c**p, you’re s**t, you’re useless, you can’t score runs here’."

Khawaja was also involved in the infamous Long Room incident during the Lord's Test where a few of the MCC members had a go at the opener for Jonny Baisrtow's stumping. On this, Khawaja added:

"Walking back through the Long Room, I couldn’t believe what was said. I was like, ‘This is meant to be the gold standard of cricket’. Lord’s is meant to be a special place where they’ll clap you off whether you get a duck or a hundred, but after Edgbaston, I wasn’t just going to stand by and cop it. I never go up to anyone without a reason but I’ll always stand up for myself. People take my politeness as a weakness but if you come for me, I’ll come right back.”

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Usman Khawaja in his celebration of Edgbaston hundred

Usman Khawaja had toured England before as well but wasn't quite able to cement his spot in the team. Having conquered most conditions around the world, Khawaja had found scoring runs in England a bit difficult.

However, he put those troubles to rest by smashing a sensational hundred in Edgbaston. His celebration showed just how much it meant to him. On this, he stated:

"It was as if no one cared or bothered to look into my recent successes. As I’m going to the nets, people saying that I can’t score runs here. That’s when it really struck me. So the celebration was all the chained-up emotion. I don’t know why I dropped the bat, but it was probably the culmination of having three Ashes tours here and getting dropped in two of them."

Usman Khawaja scored 496 runs in Ashes 2023, the most by any in the series and played a massive role in Australia retaining the Urn.