Australia could yet ask Usman Khawaja to slide back into the middle order for next week’s Adelaide Test, coach Andrew McDonald has confirmed. The opener is over the back spasms that ruled him out of Brisbane, leaving the selectors to decide whether to change a batting unit that has just delivered two brisk victories.
Khawaja will turn 39 during the match. Should he play, he would be the first Australian to appear in a Test at that age since 1984, a fact that is more curiosity than concern inside the camp. The real dilemma is what to do with the Travis Head-Jake Weatherald combination that was hurriedly thrown together in Perth and promptly rattled off partnerships of 72 and 78.
“It worked at this point in time,” McDonald said. “Pink-ball Test at the Gabba, we felt like that combination was right for those conditions and the opposition. We will always ask ourselves the question at the selection table as we move in … And we’re taking this Test by Test.”
Head and Weatherald’s success is unusually stark. Australia managed just three fifty stands in 14 Tests after David Warner retired; already they have two in as many games. Head featured in one of those earlier efforts, a scratchy 55 with Khawaja on a turning Colombo surface, but this latest pair clearly shifts the conversation.
Khawaja, meanwhile, has been under the microscope for a while. Since the end of the 2023 Ashes he averages 31.84 – one hundred in 45 innings – a line of numbers that nearly cost him his place before the series began. He did, though, pile on runs for Queensland earlier in the summer, and there is residual goodwill from the twin hundreds he scored at the SCG in 2022 when parachuted in at No.5.
Back then, recasting him as an opener felt the obvious play. It has stayed that way ever since, to the point that the idea of him moving back down the list was barely raised until the last fortnight.
“The assumption is that Uzzie can only open as well,” McDonald noted. “So I think that he does have the flexibility. And we like to think that all our batters have the flexibility to be able to perform anywhere in that order … We’re open to what it will look like for us moving forward.”
Michael Clarke, speaking on radio, is not entirely sold. “Not sure I’d go back to Khawaja,” he said, though he expects the panel will. His view reflects an undercurrent among some former players: don’t meddle when things are rolling.
Yet there is also a push, led by McDonald and captain Pat Cummins, for a more fluid batting “model”. The pair believe fixed positions are overrated; match-ups, pitch and ball type should drive selections. It is a modern outlook, common in white-ball cricket, but still a novelty in the Test arena where roles are usually entrenched.
If Khawaja returns at Adelaide it is likely to be as a specialist bat, meaning wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis – used at No.7 in Brisbane – could be squeezed out. That would restore the recent five-bowler balance while leaving a top seven of Head, Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Khawaja, Cameron Green and Alex Carey.
“He’s been a stable piece up there, so we haven’t discussed moving him previously,” McDonald added. “But we’re open to what the batting model would look like moving forward should there be any moving parts. Whether Trav opens, whether he goes back to the middle, that will all play out. We’re taking it Test by Test.”
All the talk will persist until the XI is read out at the toss. For now, selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide have the rare luxury of both form and experience at their disposal – along with one thorny decision.
