Usman Khawaja is very happy to notch up his maiden Ashes hundred on day three of fifth Ashes Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Saturday. He says it was his dream to achieve this feat and the day has finally come in his life.

“Playing in the Ashes was a dream. Did that. Winning an Ashes was a dream. We won. Scoring a hundred in the Ashes has always been something I always wanted to do. I’ve done that now too,” he said.

The career of Southpaw has never been a cakewalk as selectors axed his several times from the team before cementing his place in the XI in late 2015. He was at his fluent best during that phase, he was notching Test hundreds at will apart from two Big Bash centuries in the same season.

“It’s disappointing. When I am scoring runs, I’m elegant and when I’m not scoring runs I’m lazy. I can’t seem to win when things aren’t going well. It’s disappointing to hear but it’s something I have dealt with throughout my career. When I play nothing really changes for me. I go out there and try and score runs every single time,” said Khawaja.

“Sometimes the game feels really simple and easy and other times it is a bit of a grind. That’s the way it is.”

However, it took a lot of time to notch up a Test hundred at his home ground in front of family and friends. “The SCG was where I grew up playing cricket for New South Wales and an Ashes century is something I have wanted for a long time and I haven’t been able to achieve, so it was very satisfying.”

Meanwhile, Khawaja expressed his will to play at every opportunity which will come in his way.

“I love playing for Australia every single test match, every chance I get. All I can do is try and go out there and score runs for my team and do well in the top order. I like to be playing every single game, but you can’t look too far ahead either,” he concluded.