Usman Khawaja says he has no desire to cling on to an Australia cap he no longer deserves, yet remains convinced he can add plenty both with the bat and as a sounding board for teenage opener Sam Konstas when the side meets West Indies next month.
The 38-year-old left-hander is fresh from a forgettable World Test Championship final, falling twice to Kagiso Rabada and reopening debate over his returns against high-quality pace. Since January 2024 he averages 25 against quicks – hardly career-ending, but down on earlier peaks – and, inevitably, questions surfaced about his place in an Ashes year.
Khawaja, second only to Yashasvi Jaiswal for runs among openers in the last WTC cycle, prefers to look at the broader numbers. “I can’t understand how I can [have a problem against seam bowling] if I can score so many runs in Shield cricket or be the highest run-scorer for Australia in the WTC cycle,” he said in Barbados. “I open the batting for Australia. So I get out to seam more than I get out to anyone else. It’s just part and parcel of the game.
“I wish I could face more spinners, but you don’t always get that opportunity. So, I’m facing the new-ball bowlers with the new ball every single time. I went back from Sri Lanka to domestic cricket and scored a hundred against Tasmania. I pretty much faced seam the whole time there [and] against Riley Meredith who is one of the fastest bowlers in the country.
“I understand I’m 38 years old. People will be looking for an excuse. I think I’ve got a role to play. Open the batting, starting off and setting a good platform for Australia.”
Head coach Andrew McDonald appears to agree; at Lord’s he all but rubber-stamped Khawaja’s spot for the Ashes. The player, for his part, has no wish to leave Australia short at the top. Since David Warner bowed out 18 months ago, Khawaja has already shared the new ball with five partners – Steven Smith, Nathan McSweeney, Konstas, Travis Head and, briefly, Marnus Labuschagne.
With Warner he built what he calls “almost a sixth sense”: “I knew when and where he was going to drop and run a quick single, and I was ready for it.” Re-creating that understanding with a 19-year-old newcomer will take time, yet Khawaja sees it as part of his job description.
“With young Sammy coming in, it’s an added role [for me],” he explained. “To help Sammy along through his journey, trying to impart as much knowledge as I can. I won’t be around forever. But it’s very important that I can do whatever I can, obviously first and foremost, [to] have a solid partnership between us but then bit of stability at the top but also guide him through this journey. He’s still very young, he’s a 19-year-old boy, and it’s quite exciting.”
Konstas, a right-hander who moves into line crisply and scores heavily square of the wicket, has been earmarked as a long-term option since his century for New South Wales on debut last October. Selectors hope the West Indies tour, with its slower surfaces, offers a manageable introduction before he faces England’s attack in seamer-friendly conditions later in the year.
Former Australia opener Chris Rogers, now Victoria coach, believes the pairing could click. “Khawaja has always been calm at the crease and in the dressing room,” Rogers told ABC Radio. “That’s the best environment for a young opener learning international cricket.”
For Khawaja the motivation is simple: prove there is “plenty left in the tank”, enjoy another Ashes campaign and, if all goes well, leave a sturdier top order than the one he inherited. Realistically, he knows the end of a Test career can arrive quickly; for now, he is still making the decisions.
“I’m very attuned to whatever is best for the team is what I’m trying to do,” he said. A short pause followed, then a grin. “And at the moment that means scoring runs and teaching the kid next to me how to do it too.”
The work starts in the Caribbean.
