Between 2011 and 2017, Usman Khawaja faced 1,217 balls of spin in Test cricket and reverse swept just three of them, scoring no runs, and getting out once. It wasn’t effective, and it certainly wasn’t pretty.

“I’ve worked as hard as anyone,” Khawaja said after the game’s dramatic conclusion. “I’ve worked my backside off for the last 10 years of first-class cricket, day in, day out. People think because of my relaxed nature that’s not the case, that I’ve been gifted to be able to get to where I am, but it’s not the case at all.

“I’ve worked my absolute backside off for the last 10 years and really worked as hard as I can in different conditions like this and in England and other places. That sort of stuff goes… people overlook that sort of stuff and you don’t get to play at the highest level without putting in the hard yards. There’s no secret to success, it’s all about hard work.”

However, as much as this knock was about hard work, and proving people wrong, it was also about hard-headedness. It’s one thing to put criticisms about your work ethic to one side, because you can tell yourself that you are working hard and you are doing your best. It’s quite another to receive a purely cricketing criticism from one of the best players and most respected voices in Australian cricket history, and ignore it, confident that your way is right. Because if you’re wrong, the criticism will only get louder.

This was an innings to shatter all preconceptions in a way only a great Test knock can. It showed that Khawaja can play spin in foreign conditions, that he can work hard and has worked hard, and that he won’t change for anyone else. It also suggested that, in a time without Steve Smith and David Warner, that he can be the batsman they can rely on, and might even perhaps one day be considered in their class.