With opener Usman Khawaja being named in the 15-member Australian squad for the third Test of the Ashes series against England, the 38-year-old opener is expected to play in the third Test after missing the second Test at Brisbane due to back spasms suffered in the opening Test. With Travis Head starring in the opener’s role at Brisbane along with Jake Weatherald and Khawaja playing in the addle order in the opening Test, former Australian opener David Warner believes Khawaja should feature in the opener’s role at Adelaide with Head moving down in the batting order.
“I think Uzzy (Usman Khawaja) comes back in, slides to the top, and Trav (Head) goes down. That’s probably a worse result for England, Travis Head going back down the order. At the end of the day, Travis put his hand up to bat in the situation he was in. He came out and batted in the way Travis Head does. You see plenty of interviews from Trav (Travis Head) saying that is Uzzy’s spot, and if when the time comes they ask him to go up the order, he wouldn’t mind to do that. But then it’s on all of us to understand that potentially might not work and Travis will have to go back down the order. And then they are going to have to look for another replacement. The selectors have a headache,” Warner told reporters.
38-year-old Khawaja, who was the opening partner of Warner for years before the latter retired last year, has scored 463 runs in eight Tests including a double hundred in Sri Lanka this year. The double hundred is the only hundred Khawaja has scored in Tests this year and Warner believes that Khawaja still has to score runs to deserve a farewell whenever that happens. “At the end of the day, you still have to score runs. You’ll deserve the dream farewell if you score runs and the selectors stick by you,” Warner added.
Post Warner’s retirement, Australia have rotated five opening partners for Khawaja in 15 Test matches. With Khawaja facing back spasms in the Ashes opening Test, Jake Weatherald and Marnus Labuschangne opened for Australia with Khawaja batting at four before Head partnered with Weatherald to open in the second innings. Head and Weatherald added 77 runs for the opening wicket during Australia’s first innings at Brisbane and Warner has urged Australian chief selector to have faith in Weatherald.
Warner also believes Matt Renshaw too can be considered for the opener’s role by the Australian selectors. “We’ve got a lot of young [opening] talent there at the moment that’s coming through. But what I will say to George Bailey and the selectors is to show faith in their 31-year-old, Jake Weatherald. I think experience is key as well. I think when you pick guys who have been around first-class cricket, around the environment for a long time, you still need that senior figure in a way.“So credit to them if they’ve picked him. But moving forward, Renshaw could be one. I think he’ll slide straight back in there. He’s had a taste of Test cricket,” Warner added.
