Usman Khawaja has brought back another controversy on Australia’s approach to reverse swing in the lead-up to the 2018 sandpaper scandal. In his autobiography Sabr, the former batter explained how the team
experimented with the ball during the 2017-18 Ashes series at home. The former opener, writing without a ghostwriter, focuses on the Perth Test and the day-night match in Adelaide.
On the final day in Perth, Mitchell Starc produced one of the series’ signature deliveries, a ball that jagged back sharply off the crack to dismiss James Vince. Khawaja places that moment in context.
“On day five, Starcy bowled that unforgettable ball to James Vince off the crack. We were reverse swinging it late on day five. Actually, we were reverse swinging the ball the game before too, except it was much tougher, because it was the pink ball,” he writes.
According to Khawaja, the method involved lifting the flaps on the quarter seam. “But we and I say ‘we’, because we were a team, whether you did the deed or not had worked out that, if we raised the flaps up on the quarter seam on that ball, it was almost like it had a rudder on it and it’d start reverse swinging,” he wrote
He also said that he knew this topic would bring in criticism. “And before you start going at me, calm down. The whole world was doing whatever little they could to try and reverse swing the ball.”
Usman Khawaja reveals Australia players knew about ball-tampering tactics
The revelations around ball tampering are part of a broader account in his book Sabr which also has a chapter on the long-standing topic around the Cape Town scandal. Khawaja has said that the entire squad shared knowledge of efforts to alter the ball’s condition, including the use of sandpaper in the preceding Test in Gqeberha. He describes how the tactic produced exaggerated reverse swing that left even him, fielding at gully, astonished at how much the ball was moving.
Khawaja said the Ashes experiments were a part of a wider strategy. He argues South Africa were superior at generating reverse swing during the 2018 series and that Australia were simply trying to keep pace. The book portrays a dressing-room culture in which such practices were discussed openly and accepted as necessary to compete.
The timing of the disclosures, coming eight years after Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft carried the public blame and lengthy bans, has reignited debate on social media.
Khawaja maintains he has not singled out individuals and that collective responsibility should have been acknowledged from the start. He has briefed current captain Pat Cummins and Cricket Australia officials on the book’s contents. But despite these things coming out, Cricket Australia has indicated it sees no need to reopen the original investigation.
