With Usman Khawaja ruled out of the Gabba Test with a back injury, we must now ask whether this is the end of his storied international career.
The 38-year-old has played 85 Tests for Australia at an average of 43.56, has made 16 centuries and 6055 runs and will be remembered as one of the great openers of the 2020s.
But there’s no arguing with recent form.
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Khawaja has made one score above 50 in 2025, and that was his career high of 232 in Sri Lanka in January.
Usman Khawaja watches on from the dugout. Getty
His next most recent century was in June of 2023. He has averaged just 31.12 since the start of 2024.
He hasn’t looked the steady force at the top of the order in a long while now.
Even if he overcomes this back injury in time to play in this Ashes series, his spot will likely only become available again if Jake Weatherald or Travis Head falter.
Weatherald, even in the worst case scenario, will have to be given until Melbourne to find his feet, while backflipping on Head opening so quickly would not reflect well on the selectors.
Set to turn 39 before the Boxing Day Test, it’s hard to imagine clear ways back into the team for Khawaja, and it’s starting to look less likely that the selectors would try to force it.
This Aussie XI is old enough as it is. Cameron Green is the only player in his 20s named in the 14-man Ashes squad.
Usman Khawaja in Perth. Getty
Inglis, Khawaja’s replacement for Brisbane, is 30 himself, but the general trend for this team is a need to find the next group of batters who will lead Australia through the rest of the 2020s.
The Sydney Morning Herald has confirmed that Khawaja is not retiring just yet, but also has not been given guarantees of a spot in the XI once he is healthy.
Back issues are no joke, and given he has said he required pain killers to get through Perth, rushing him back just because he has been the incumbent could end poorly for everyone involved.
Typically, new faces in the Test side get at least three Tests to show that they’re up to the job before being dispensed with. That may mean that Weatherald needs to fail in at least four more innings if not six to open the door for a possible Khawaja return this summer.
The delicious scenario that could unfold would be a 2-1 or 2-2 scoreline when the series arrives in Sydney, with the Weatherald/Head partnership failing to fire. There’s no doubt that if that circumstance presented, a Khawaja finale would at the very least be discussed by selectors, potentially setting the scene for one last great knock to salvage a result against the old enemy in front of family and friends.
It would be a script writer’s dream and certainly stranger things have happened in Australian cricket. With all that said, it’s no more than an outside chance.
If this is it for the modern great, it won’t be the finish Khawaja had hoped for, but it shouldn’t dampen what has been a remarkable career either.
He has put together a 15-year Test career, starting in the flames of Australia’s worst Ashes defeat on home soil back in 2011 and peaking in 2022 with his dominance upon returning to the top of the order.
Usman Khawaja batting. Getty
Across nine innings in 2022, he made four tons, two 90s and an unbeaten 44. It’s one of the hottest streaks of any Australian Test batter this century.
He won the Shane Warne Test Player of the Year award for his dominance in 2022 and followed it up with big scores in India and England in 2023.
And that will no doubt be what he will is remembered for, as well as being the first Pakistani born man to receive a baggy green.
There’s no doubt he will have a role with Cricket Australia going forward, he would even make a fantastic commentator for any broadcaster.
But this injury situation has presented the selectors with a chance to move on and look to the future, and it’s one they should not pass up.