Cricket Australia (CA) bosses plan to sit down with Usman Khawaja this week, looking for some context – and perhaps a little contrition – after the opener dismissed the Perth Test surface as a “piece of s”.
Khawaja’s assessment landed only 24 hours after the ICC ticked the same surface off as “very good”, the highest mark on offer. CA, which had already endorsed the strip publicly, now finds itself balancing a player’s honest view against the governing body’s official rating.
“Nineteen wickets on the first day and about 20 people got hit. That’s a great wicket, that seems real fair,” Khawaja told guests at a fundraising lunch for his own foundation. “The same thing happened last year in the India Test … So day-one wicket at Perth is a piece of s, I’m happy to say that.”
Variable bounce, rather than traditional sideways movement, was the opener’s main gripe. “You can’t really predict up and down. Up and down is the hardest. Sideways is a little bit easier,” he explained. “Your hands can’t catch up … Day two, day three and then day four, they start to crack up and cure again.”
The match in question – Australia’s eight-wicket win over England – lasted just 847 deliveries, the shortest Test on Australian soil in 93 years. Eighteen wickets on day one did little for England’s confidence; Geoffrey Boycott labelled their batting “brainless”.
CA’s chief of cricket, James Allsopp, took a different view. He said the ICC verdict “provided a fair balance between bat and ball”, adding that it backed CA’s internal assessment of the surface.
Even so, the board is understood to be disappointed by Khawaja’s language. A formal sanction has not been ruled out, though insiders suggest a quiet word and reminder of the code of conduct is more likely than a fine.
The meeting with officials also comes at a tricky personal moment for the left-hander. Back spasms kept him from opening in either innings in Perth, forcing Travis Head to fill the gap and, in the process, hammer a decisive hundred in the fourth-innings chase. Khawaja insists the back has settled and he expects to play at the Gabba, but external noise about Head moving permanently to the top refuses to go away.
For context, Khawaja’s Perth average remains healthy, and team-mates privately back his place. Still, selectors are wary of going into a second Ashes Test with an opener nursing an injury and short of recent time in the middle.
From a broader perspective, the episode highlights an ongoing debate around modern Test pitches. Curators are encouraged to offer pace and seam, yet are marked down for surfaces that end inside three days. The ICC’s rating system, while transparent, does not always match player experience. Khawaja’s frustration – stripped of expletives – centres on that gap.
A former Test groundsman contacted for this story suggested the bounce issue could be linked to “uneven moisture retention” on day one, followed by the surface firming up under hot Perth sun. “If the water sits in the wrong layers, you get that up-and-down from the start,” he said, adding that the WACA (before the Test move across the river) traditionally settled after lunch on day two.
Whatever the science, CA now needs an opener fit, focused and perhaps a touch more diplomatic. Khawaja, never shy of a straight answer, may argue he was simply calling it as he saw it. The board will remind him that public critiques carry weight, especially when the ICC has already handed out its gold star.
Yet, for all the noise, most in the Australian camp appear relaxed. The team took the points, the ICC handed out praise, and the Gabba – usually bouncier but more predictable – awaits. Khawaja’s task is to convert blunt honesty into runs. CA’s task is to encourage forthrightness without crossing the line into public mud-slinging.
The conversation this week should clear the air. Whether it also quietens debate about Perth’s unpredictable day-one bounce remains to be seen.
