Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith support Australia in the third Test against Pakistan.

Usman Khawaja said it was funny that people were talking about Steve Smith’s Test drought, given that the former captain continues to produce big scores. Smith was frustrated after being bowled out for 59 on the first day of the third Test against Pakistan in Lahore.

After Australia fell to 8-2, the 32-year-old paired up with Khawaja (91) to build a critical 138-run combination that helped right the ship.

Smith’s most recent achievement came in January 2021 against India. Since then, he has played 14 times in the Test arena and produced seven half-centuries, including scores of 93, 81, 78 and 72.

Smith’s last half-century helped Australia reach 232-5 at stumps on day one, and Khawaja believes it’s only a matter of time before the star batsman reaches triple figures again.

Khawaja added, “I’m sure he’s frustrated in some ways.” “He is, in my opinion, the greatest batsman I’ve seen in my time, averaging 60 for most of his Test career. I’m always impressed with how many runs he’s scored over a long period of time.

“It’s odd that we speak about Steve Smith not scoring in the hundreds, but he seems to score 70, 80…and does it with ease.” That’s the class of Steve Smith. I’m sure once he gets a big score, more big scores will come. The fact that he’s getting that 60, 70, he looks really good with the bat.”

When Smith’s bat was caught in the flap of his back pad while trying to bowl Naseem Shah down the leg side, he was trapped lbw.

“I’ve been there, it’s not fun when that happens,” Khawaja said. “It’s almost like in slow motion. You throw that pitch again and he hits it 99 times out of 100, or 100 times out of 100. The bat just gets stuck, a little bit of bad luck.”

Khawaja’s latest hit brought his series total to 392 runs for a 130.66 ERA, but he was struggling when he was on the field Monday.

“I was a little sick. The doctor gave me some medicine between breaks,” Khawaja said. “I wasn’t feeling well at all. There was a lot of mind games in between. I just thought, ‘keep going, go as long as you can, keep pushing.

“And to push for five hours – I felt absolutely horrible at the end of the day. I could have easily gone harder and played a big shot and come out on 20 or 30. So, for me to get 90 in the day with the heat, I’m really happy with that.”