The Ashes: Khawaja delights fans with bright start

Usman Khawaja of Australia bats during day one of the Fifth Ashes Test match. Photo / Getty Images

For Australia's cricket fans it was a case of love at second ball.

Usman Khawaja had already recorded the two biggest cheers of the opening day's play in the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG when the debutant tamed the English monster known as Chris Tremlett with an elegant pull shot from just the second delivery he'd faced as a Test cricketer.

As the ball raced to the boundary a third cheer, louder than that which had greeted the 24-year-old at the crease, or when he had tucked Tremlett off his hip first ball to get off the mark with a tidy two, roared from the 43,561 fans in attendance.

Surely cheering loudest of all would have been a pocket of Khawaja's family and friends in the Ladies Pavilion, including his incredibly proud parents Tariq and Fauzia.

"My mum and my dad (get nervous) but my mum sometimes has less idea about what's going on out on the field so it probably makes her more nervous, but she's been like that her whole life," Khawaja told reporters on Monday.

"I wasn't thinking much, I just literally wanted to get off the mark first thing and luckily it happened first ball.

"Next ball I hit a four and then I just let my shoulders drop after that ... I didn't really have a plan to go out really hard, it just ended up being that way."

The ice-cool No.3 batsman didn't seem fazed in the slightest to be making his debut in place of injured skipper Ricky Ponting in front of a full house and against a strong England bowling line-up.

Having waited most of his life for this opportunity, the Pakistan-born left-hander looked immediately at ease with his new position as Australia's first Muslim Test cricketer.

He said being presented with his Test cap by former skipper Mark Taylor in the morning had been more nerve-wracking than anything else.

"I was probably most emotional when I got my baggy green in the morning, after that I calmed down a little," he said.

"As soon as I was out there it just felt like the best thing ever, I was out there playing for Australia and the crowd was right behind me."

He didn't even look that worried when an edge while he was on seven fell just short of England's slip cordon.

At last downtrodden Australian fans, dismayed at their team's at times woeful performance against the Auld Enemy this summer, had a reason to cheer as a new hero emerged.

In the end Khawaja showed greater poise than most of the senior players around him as Australia's struggling top order once more failed to make the English sweat.

Openers Phillip Hughes and Shane Watson were guilty of not building on starts while new skipper Michael Clarke could only make a scratchy four before being caught in the gully.

While Khawaja only managed 37 before he top-edged a sweep shot off Graeme Swann straight down Jonathan Trott's throat, the game seemed to gain a new energy whenever he was on strike.

In the end it was probably over too soon for the batsman, his family and the rest of the crowd but the indications are certainly that Khawaja has what it takes to forge a long Test career.

SCOREBOARD

- AAP