Renshaw was ready for another shot a Test cricket<\/a>; he previously played 14 matches for Australia in the game\u2019s longest format, accumulating 645 runs at 29.31 including a career-best 184 against Pakistan during the 2017 New Year\u2019s Test at the SCG.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/content.foxsports.com.au\/fs\/electrode\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has not done himself any harm in the way he has played in the last three matches (against India),\u201d Khawaja said of Renshaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s looked the part, which he always does when he goes to the next level. You feel like he is the one guy who actually belongs at the next level.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cObviously I am a little biased because he\u2019s a friend of mine and he has been there and done it. He has scored 180 for Australia. He has been in and out of the Australian team, and I think that\u2019s a really good thing.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Matthew Renshaw of Australia. Photo by Ayush Kumar\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Khawaja, who also made his international debut at a young age, compared Renshaw\u2019s Test journey to his own, acknowledging that both of them were in and out of the national set-up for several years due to fluctuating form.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old, who cracked twin hundreds during his triumphant Test return in early 2022, described Renshaw as his \u201cmini-me\u201d, predicting he would follow a similar path as himself by flourishing in the Australian side later in the career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe literally copies everything I do,\u201d Khawaja laughed.
\u201cHe wears Nike shoes. He even lives five minutes from my house. But no, I\u2019m really happy with the way he is going about his business.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI was out there worrying about everyone else and it was only when I started worrying about myself and enjoying life I started to play a lot better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s now, or whether it\u2019s later, whenever \u2018Rennie\u2019 gets his chance, hopefully which he will get again, I know he\u2019ll be ready for it \u2026 he is in the best place to have a crack for Australia again.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
If Australia picks two specialist openers for the first Ashes Test at Perth Stadium, Labuschagne would presumably return to his preferred position at No. 3 having been dropped ahead of the recent Frank Worrell Trophy campaign against the West Indies in the Caribbean. The right-hander has been in scintillating form this summer with four hundreds in five matches for Queensland, but he may be reinvented as an opener for the blockbuster series against England to create room for two all-rounders in the middle order.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love having Marnus as part of the team,\u201d Khawaja said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe brings a lot of energy. Hopefully he will be back in the side. Our best side has Marnus in it every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is actually hitting less balls than he ever has. I have seen he is not hitting balls in the morning before a game which he has never done. He was normally in there for an hour. I think he is giving his brain a bit more of a rest.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Cummins dealt crushing Ashes blow | 03:10<\/p>\n
Khawaja endorsed the possibility of an all-Queensland top three for the Ashes, which would squeeze either Cameron Green or Beau Webster out of the starting XI.<\/p>\n
However, the former New South Wales representative was quick to point out neither of the trio were born in Queensland \u2013 Khawaja was born in Pakistan, Labuschagne in South Africa and Renshaw in England.<\/p>\n
The Sheffield Shield clash between Queensland and New South Wales gets underway at the Gabba on Tuesday, with the first ball scheduled for 11am AEDT.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian opener Usman Khawaja has backed Queensland teammate Matthew Renshaw for a Test recall ahead of the Ashes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-243505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}