Australia news: Usman Kahawaja reveals how he unlocked batting in Asia

Australia batter Usman Khawaja returns to the country of his birth confident of making an impact.

Khawaja’s last series in Asia was against Pakistan in the UAE when he shook off a previously poor record to notch a fifty and a hundred in three innings.

He says the secret to that success was not to take too much advice about batting in Asia.

“I think you just learn, day in and day out what works and what doesn’t,” Khawaja said from the Australia team’s hotel in Islamabad.

“It’s both a mindset and technical analysis thing, and if you don’t then you’re going to make the same mistakes over and over again.

“I took onus on myself that I wasn’t going to listen to anyone else about how I needed to bat on the subcontinent.

“I had tried that and failed, so I made sure I did learn from it.

“There was a lot of work that went into it.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s quite tough work.”

Khawaja calls on recent positive experiences in Asia to bolster his confidence.

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“I’ve been to India A series in India, scored hundreds in India there and in white-ball series,” Khawaja said of the successes that have consigned those earlier Test trials to distant memory.

“And then obviously playing in Dubai (in his comeback Test against Pakistan) it wasn’t just a one-off there, I’ve done it time and time again in different teams.

“That was five or six years ago those (Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) series, and they were great learning experiences.

“If I didn’t have those experiences, I probably wouldn’t be able to develop my game.

“Now I’ve given myself the best chance to score in these conditions, and to know what I need to do.

“If it doesn’t work out from there, I can live with that.

“But beforehand, in Sri Lanka