Australia's Usman Khawaja was the lone Australian player wearing a black armband on the first day of the Sydney Test against India, which caught the attention of fans who wondered what's the reason behind that.
Khawaja decided to come up with that gesture to mourn the tragic death of the wife of former South African batter Ashwell Prince, who is a good friend of the Australian opener -- according to a report on UK's Daily Mail.
The 40-year-old Melissa Prince was suffering from cancer and died on Sunday.
Khawaja developed his bond with Prince when both were teammates during their County Championship stint with Lancashire in England.
Prince paid a tribute to his wife on Instagram.
"It was extremely difficult to have to see you endure as much pain as you did in the last few months of your life," the post read. "But we choose to remember you in the way that we knew you. A gem, one of the rare types who touched people's hearts in a special way wherever you went."
Khawaja came out to bat on Friday in the series-decider at Sydney late on the opening day after Australia bowled out India for just 185.
But the veteran opener's poor run with the bat continued, as he was dismissed for just 2, caught in the slips by KL Rahul off Jasprit Bumrah. It ended the day with Australia 9 for 1, trailing India by 176 runs.
Khawaja has so far scored only 143 runs in his 9 innings in the series.
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