{"id":248698,"date":"2025-11-07T04:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T04:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248698\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T04:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T04:57:11","slug":"usman-khawaja-interview-australian-test-squad-jake-weatherald-marnus-labuschagne-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248698\/","title":{"rendered":"Usman Khawaja interview, Australian Test squad, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian opener Usman Khawaja has declared the Test side\u2019s at its best with Marnus Labuschagne batting at first drop, praising the credentials of uncapped opener Jake Weatherald.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Australia announced its 15-player squad<\/a> for this month\u2019s Ashes series opener at Perth Stadium, with Weatherald getting a maiden national call-up and Labuschagne earning a recall courtesy of his blistering domestic form.<\/p>\n

However, chief selector George Bailey couldn\u2019t confirm whether the Queenslander would open or bat at his preferred position at No. 3, confessing the starting XI would depend on Cameron Green\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Fox Cricket on Thursday evening<\/a>, Khawaja claimed the strongest Australian Test side had Labuschagne in the middle order rather than at the top \u2014 each of the right-hander\u2019s 11 Test hundreds came at No. 3, while his five hundreds for Queensland this season were all at first drop.<\/p>\n

Watch The Ashes 2025\/26 LIVE and ad-break free during play with FOX CRICKET on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1 ><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously my personal opinion, but I think our best team is always when Marnus is scoring runs at No. 3,\u201d Khawaja said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of it as an opposition player. I put myself out of the Australian cricket team and I think, \u2018Well, if I was the English captain, what team wouldn\u2019t I want?\u2019 And it\u2019s always when you have Marnus scoring runs at three, Smith four, and Head five.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, that\u2019s our best side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khawaja\u2019s comments come a day after former Australian captain Steve Waugh suggested<\/a> that players were having too much influence in selection matters.<\/p>\n

Aussies drop catch in FIRST OVER | 00:39<\/p>\n

The left-hander also heaped praise on Weatherald, who will make his debut in the first Test against England if Labuschagne bats at No. 3. The Tasmanian was the leading run-scorer during last season\u2019s Sheffield Shield with 906 runs at 50.33, including three hundreds.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been knocking the door down,\u201d Khawaja said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played a lot of cricket against him … he\u2019s a terrific player.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions last year were pretty hard at Shield cricket, and he was a standout. You can see the wickets were green, but he found a way to score runs, both leg-side and off-side.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very strong square of the wicket, cut shots, pull shots, but he also knows how to score down the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he is playing well, he\u2019s a guy who knows how to keep the momentum going and score runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khawaja, who celebrates his 39th birthday next month, was also asked about his future in the Test arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I want to go out there, score runs, and win games for Australia, and win the Ashes for Australia,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll do that. And when that happens, we\u2019ll see where everything\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first Ashes Test between Australia and England gets underway at Perth Stadium on November 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian opener Usman Khawaja has declared the Test side\u2019s at its best with Marnus Labuschagne batting at first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-248698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}