Michael Clarke has implored Usman Khawaja not to miss another golden opportunity to retire in front of his boyhood home crowd at the SCG after the fifth Ashes cricket Test, after also calling for him to walk away last summer. Clarke was of the opinion that Khawaja should have called it quits following the fifth Test against India this time last year, but the 39-year-old decided to play on.
Khawaja has played 87 Tests since debuting at the SCG back in 2011, scoring over 6200 runs at an average of 43.39. He was originally left out of the third Test in Adelaide, but got a reprieve when Steve Smith was a late withdrawal.
Michael Clarke (R) believes it’s the right time for Usman Khawaja (second from left) to walk away. Image: Getty
He’s moved down to the middle order after spending the last few years opening the batting, and Clarke believes it’s the right time for Khawaja to hang up the baggy green. “I think this will be Usman’s farewell Test match,” Clarke told News Corp on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s a token selection, they obviously picked him for Melbourne so if they’ve gone that way, you pick him for Sydney as well.
“But I think he’ll retire after this Test match. Australia will win the series. Hopefully he goes out with a big score. I’d love to see Uz make a hundred at the SCG and walk away on a high because not many people get that opportunity.”
Usman Khawaja hasn’t indicated he’s planning to retire
The narrative surrounding the Ashes series has been that it will likely be Khawaja’s last. Australia’s next series is at home against Bangladesh in August, which looms as a perfect chance to blood some newer players and look towards the future.
The likes of Matt Renshaw, Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney and Campbell Kellaway are all waiting in the wings, but Khawaja has given no indication that he’s planning to retire. Speaking on Monday, coach Andrew McDonald said he’s received no word from Khawaja that Sydney will be his last Test.
Usman Khawaja made his Test debut at the SCG in 2011. (Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)
The fact that Khawaja has only really cemented his place in the Test team in the last four years might give him reason to want to keep playing. Rather than having a long and successful career in the baggy green since debuting, Khawaja has been dropped seven times and only really sealed his spot in 2021.
He’s never been part of a winning side in an Ashes series in England, or a Border-Gavaskar series in India. Australia will tour India in early 2027 before an away Ashes series in the middle of that year – by which time he’ll be 40.
“He strikes me as the sort of personality that might just not retire,” leading journalist Robert Craddock told Code Sports on Sunday. “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’.”