MARK Waugh has backed Usman Khawaja to put his troubles in Asia well and truly behind him after the left-hander notched his first Test half-century on the continent against Pakistan in Dubai.

Having gone into the series with a Test average of 14.62 on the continent, Khawaja went to lunch on Khawaja went to lunch on day three on 68, well and truly eclisping his previous highest score in Asia of 26.

That record has seen Khawaja misses seven of Australia’s past ten Tests in Asia, with question marks over his ability against spin. Waugh believes those concerns were unfounded and expects Khawaja to go on to achieve bigger and better things from here.

“There’s this theory that he can’t play in Asia, but he can play spin,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket during the lunch break. “It’s more of a mental issue for him and now that he’s got a good score under his belt he’ll flourish.”

However, it was far from a chanceless innings from Khawaja, whose fifty was punctuated by four crisp boundaries and two massive let-offs.

The 31-year-old enjoyed his first lucky break in the fourth over of the day when he was on 17. He ran past a legbreak from Yasir Shah only for the ball to beat wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed too. If Ahmed had succesfuly gathered the ball it would have been a simple stumping.

Khawaja had another let off just before the first drink break when he tickled a ball into the hands of bat-pad, once again off the bowling of Shah. The leg-spinner was adamant the Australian had hit it but was unable to convince either the umpire or his captain. Khawaja was on 38 at the time.

On 56 he also survived a tight lbw appeal against Shah, that the Pakistanis opted to send upstairs. Ball-tracking suggested it was going on to hit the stumps but it was umpire’s call on whether it struck him inside the line.