Usman Khawaja says the back spasms that ruled him out of the second Test are behind him and that he is, in his own words, “100%” fit for next week’s match in Adelaide. Whether he walks straight back into Australia’s XI is another matter altogether.
“Obviously hope to play,” he told reporters after arriving in South Australia, where the Ashes resume on 17 December. “I don’t really know. Obviously, it’s not my decision. The older I’ve got, the more comfortable I’ve got with things that I can control and things that I haven’t. I feel really good in terms of I’m ready to go. The rest of it is not in my control. So, yeah, we’ll see what happens.”
The 38-year-old (he turns 39 next week) missed Brisbane after those same spasms flared up during the flight back from Perth. Khawaja admitted he might have soldiered on had the Test come later in the series, but medical staff advised caution so early in a five-match campaign.
“I’m feeling 100%. So unless something else [happens], but I felt 100% before Perth, too. It’s just one of those things. I’ve done everything. That’s why I was training all last week. I was just doing rehab, which sucks because when you get injured, you have to do more, right.”
He went through a string of gym sessions, sprints and lengthy net work while the Gabba Test unfolded without him. “I’ve had a fair bit of load, but it’s obviously what I wanted to just get as much as possible and I’m running at 100% again and again. So everything’s feeling pretty good again.”
Khawaja’s professionalism has been questioned in some quarters, largely because he squeezed in a couple of rounds of golf before his back seized. He dismissed any hint of laxity with a short reply: “I’ve always been a professional.”
The selection equation
In Khawaja’s absence, Travis Head and Jake Weatherald put on stands of 75 (Perth) and 77 (Brisbane), giving the top order an unexpectedly settled look. That leaves national selectors with a straightforward but delicate call: restore an experienced opener or keep faith with a fledgling pairing that has done little wrong.
Former captain Michael Clarke expects the veteran to be reinstated yet remains unsure it is the best move. “Not sure I’d go back to Khawaja,” he said on radio, adding that momentum can be “a fragile thing” for young batters.
Khawaja, for his part, highlighted the different gears available to him, pointing to a Sheffield Shield strike-rate above 60 this summer. “I’ve got gears when I want them,” he said. “You’ve got to find a way to be consistent for a long period of time, not just over a game or two. So I’ve always been conscious of that. I can go out there and play more shots and I think I’ve been scoring pretty [quickly]. So sometimes the game and the situation dictates that [and] the wickets dictate that. I think I just play the game, what’s in front of me.”
Middle-order option still alive
Should Head and Weatherald keep their spots, Khawaja could slip into the middle order, a role he filled with success during his 2022 comeback. “I’ve always done really well batting at four or five,” he said. “Normally people that open aren’t as attuned to No. 5 as opening because they’re not as good playing spin. But I’ve proven I’m one of the best players to spin in Australia. So, that’s never been the issue. So I can bat anywhere.”
What the numbers say
Since the start of 2024, Khawaja averages 43 in Test cricket, a touch above his career mark, while maintaining the patient style that often blunts the new ball. The counter-argument is that Head’s high-tempo approach and Weatherald’s left-right combination have unsettled England’s seamers twice already, granting Australia brisk starts and freeing Pat Cummins to manage his attack.
A selector’s headache, then, rather than a clean-cut choice. The final call is expected after Australia’s main training session on the eve of the Adelaide Test. Khawaja sounds prepared either way, unbothered by a decision he cannot influence.
And with that, attention shifts to the panel chaired by George Bailey: trust experience or back the incumbents? Either way, Khawaja’s declaration of fitness adds an extra layer to a series that has already produced more questions than answers.
