Leading cricket writer Robert Craddock has suggested Usman Khawaja might prolong his Test career – rather than retiring with a ‘farewell match’ at the SCG. The narrative surrounding the Ashes series has been that Khawaja will retire following its completion, and the fifth Test in Sydney looms as the perfect place to bow out.
Khawaja made his first-class debut for NSW in 2008, and played his first career Test at the SCG in 2011. Although he’s since moved to Queensland, he views Sydney and the SCG as his home.
Usman Khawaja with Aussie teammates before the fourth Ashes Test. (Photo by Matt King – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Speaking on Sunday after being inducted into the Cricket Australia Hall of Fame, Brett Lee said the fifth Ashes Test looms as a “special” farewell for Khawaja. “That’ll be up to him, but it’d be a special way for him to go out, wouldn’t it?” Lee said. “Home ground, a chance to win (the series) 4-1, but we’ll wait and see in a couple of days.”
Khawaja recently turned 39, and many believe he’ll bow out of Test cricket at the SCG. But the man himself hasn’t given any indication that he’s planning to call it quits, and Craddock admitted on Sunday he wouldn’t be surprised if Khawaja keeps playing.
The left-hand batter has over 6000 Test runs at an average of 43.39. But he’s only really cemented his place in the Test side in the last three years, which opens up the possibility that he might not be ready to call it quits.
Usman Khawaja has moved down to the middle order during the Ashes. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Usman Khawaja ‘might just not retire’
He’s one of a number of Aussie veterans who have never won an Ashes series in England. “He strikes me as the sort of personality that might just not retire,” Craddock told Code Sports. “Not make it really easy for the selectors and say ‘you’ve got to tap me (on the shoulder)’.
“He’s been a fighter. He’s been dropped seven times and I think every time you’re dropped it casts a pellet of steal in your soul to go on a bit longer. At the start of this season he said ‘I wouldn’t mind playing another season to age 40’. The narrative around him is interesting leading into this Test (in Sydney).”
Khawaja is averaging 30.6 this series, making 82 and 40 in the third Test in Adelaide. That came after he missed the second Test with a back injury, and was initially left out in Adelaide before Steve Smith’s withdrawal gave him a reprieve.
He’s moved down to the middle order, and batted at No.5 in Melbourne where he made 29 and 0. “Just a couple of weeks ago he was, and has been, one of Australia’s greatest batsmen,” Lee said. “He’s in the team because of what he’s achieved, and he wasn’t left out (in Brisbane) due to form. He was left out because of his injury – his back.
“I don’t know what’s going on in his life, in terms of his professional cricket life, but all I can say is that he’s been instrumental for Australia. He’s been such a great role model for young kids coming through.”