{"id":350731,"date":"2025-12-16T01:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350731\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T01:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:45:07","slug":"usman-khawaja-left-out-of-adelaide-test-as-pat-cummins-and-nathan-lyon-return-to-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350731\/","title":{"rendered":"Usman Khawaja left out of Adelaide Test as Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon return to Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usman Khawaja’s Test career could be over, after Australia left the veteran opener out for Adelaide and kept Travis Head at the top alongside Jake Weatherald.<\/p>\n

Just two days short of his 39th birthday, Khawaja was a notable omission from Australia’s XI for the third Ashes Test when Pat Cummins confirmed it on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Cummins and Nathan Lyon will return to the bowling attack at the expense of Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser, while the top seven is unchanged.<\/p>\n

Everything you need to know about the third Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval<\/a><\/p>\n

That means Josh Inglis will remain in the side at number seven, while Khawaja is not included after missing the Brisbane Test through back spasms.<\/p>\n

Australia can secure a series win at Adelaide Oval this week, and will celebrate the quickest retention of the urn in more than a century if it wins inside four days.<\/p>\n

But for Khawaja, there are now serious question marks over his future.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old has enjoyed one of the great late-career resurgences since his recall to the Test team at the start of 2022, starring at the top of the order.<\/p>\n

He averaged 58.7 in his first two years back in the side, but has now passed 50 just twice in his past 27 Test innings.<\/p>\n

Can’t get enough cricket from Grandstand?<\/a><\/p>\n

Tune in for the latest cricket news, interviews and analysis from the ABC team in the Grandstand Cricket Podcast.<\/p>\n

Khawaja batted in Australia’s optional net session on Tuesday, but did not face a new ball in a possible sign that any potential return may be more likely in the middle order.<\/p>\n

It came after Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald insisted that it would be premature to write Khawaja off, regardless of whether he played in this Test.<\/p>\n

“He’s had one back injury in his whole career, so I think that’s an overreaction to correlate that to the age of the athlete,” McDonald told SEN on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

“His [Sheffield] Shield numbers are incredibly good comparative to everyone else. I think he has the leading Shield average for the past three or four years.<\/p>\n

“Every time he drops back to that level he dominates. Now if that’s a determiner of who is the next best or who is next in line, then he is at the top of the pecking order.<\/p>\n

“It feels as though people want to hear an end date from him or us. But we’re not that team, we’re not going to put end dates on people.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Steve Smith was the first in the nets to bat on Tuesday, after missing Monday’s session due to illness.<\/p>\n

Smith, who captained Australia in the first two Test victories due to Cummins’s absence, is not considered in any doubt to play.<\/p>\n

Australia XI for the third Ashes Test<\/p>\n

Jake Weatherald, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon Scott Boland.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Usman Khawaja’s Test career could be over, after Australia left the veteran opener out for Adelaide and kept…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[13285,64,63,740,85,231,70541],"class_list":{"0":"post-350731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-ashes","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cricket","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-test","14":"tag-usman-khawaja"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350731","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=350731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}