Australia’s Usman Khawaja aiming to tick three boxes for continuing to play Test cricket

Brisbane, Aug 19 (IANS) Australia’s veteran opener Usman Khawaja said he will aim to continue playing Test cricket for a long time if he continues to tick three crucial boxes with the side. Khawaja scored 496 runs in the recently-concluded Ashes 2023, being the highest run-scorer of the series, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

The next Ashes series will be held in Australia in 2025-26. "In 2025…one series at a time I go with. You can get ahead of yourself and look to that time (in 2025) and think, 'I can probably get there', but I don't want to (do that)."

"I like playing one summer at a time and seeing how the body is going, how the mind is going and whether I am enjoying it. It is those three things. I am ticking those three boxes at the moment so I will keep playing," Khawaja was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

The left-handed batter also reflected on how the 2023 Ashes captured the attention and imagination of cricket fans in Australia.

"I have had so many people come up to me and tell me how good the Test series was. So for cricket...cricket definitely won. I've had more than 50 people tell me the last couple of weeks how much sleep they lost watching the Ashes."

"We would have loved to have won but we have now retained (or won) four Ashes series in a row...2019 and 2023 in England. The last time England won in Australia was 2010-11, when I debuted," he said.

"So, we've been dominating Ashes cricket for a long time and that is the bigger picture. England is going to have to come back here and beat us and do something they haven't done for a very long time," Khawaja added.

With Australia to play Tests against Pakistan and West Indies in their home summer, Khawaja will be opening alongside David Warner in what will be the latter’s final summer of Test cricket. He added that Australia have openers who can take Warner’s place in the Test side in future.

"Marcus Harris has been travelling with us a lot, everywhere we go. It would be remiss to think that he is not the next in line to open the batting for Australia. (In Queensland) Matt Renshaw has been around and playing some beautiful cricket and scored a Test hundred in Sydney early on (in his career). Then there are the likes of Cameron Bancroft, who played really well too in WA and has played for Australia also," he concluded.

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