Khawaja ready to end Asian exile

If Usman Khawaja is named in Australia's first Test XI against Bangladesh – as widely expected – it would be 217 days between games for the left-hander.

Extended net sessions and Australia's intra-squad practice match in Darwin last week have been slim pickings for the Queensland state captain as he endured a frustrating period on the sidelines.

Burdened by a poor statistical record in the subcontinent, Khawaja was pulled from Australia's one-day squad to play in New Zealand for a Dubai training camp. But in India he was dropped from the Test playing XI for Shaun Marsh.

Then, he sat on the sidelines for the entire IPL campaign with the Pune Rising Supergiant franchise. And the chance to captain Australia A in a first-class and one-day series in South Africa went begging as players boycotted the tour in Australian cricket's pay dispute.

Quick Single: Khawaja earns strong backing from Smith

Now back in the fold, and with the blessing of captain Steve Smith to resume his role at No.3 that saw him be so prolific at home the past two summers, Khawaja insists he feels no pressure to prove anything.

"(Proving myself) is the furthest thing from my mind," Khawaja told News Corp. "I'm not going to make it all about me and I never like playing cricket that way. 

"It should feel like a long time (between matches), but it actually doesn't. I don't know why.

Quick Single: The batsmen at home away from home

"It can be pretty tough (mentally). I'm glad it's happened now and didn't happen about eight years ago.

"It was frustrating at the end of India because I was there for so long. But by the time I came home it was just nice to be home, sleeping in my own bed and training back in Brisbane."

Recalled to the Australia team in the wake of the 2015 Ashes defeat, Khawaja made an immediate impact with 174 against New Zealand at the Gabba.

In the past two summers, Khawaja has score 1,085 runs on home tracks against the Black Caps, South Africa and Pakistan, with four centuries at an incredible average of 77.50.

In the same period, four Tests abroad – two in NZ, two in Sri Lanka, have seen him score 264 runs at 37.71. A Wellington ton yielded 140 of those runs, but it is the returns of 26, 18, 11 and 0 in Sri Lanka that saw him dropped for the third Test.

Quick Single: How the Aussies fared in Darwin

He did score a century in Australia's first-class warm-up match in Colombo on the 2011 Test tour, but followed that with scores of 28, 26 and 13* in the two Tests. 

A 2013 Australia A match in Chennai yielded 1 and 30*, and a return as Australia A skipper in 2015 saw him score 25, 12, 33 and 41*.

It gives him a first-class career record of 365 runs at 33.18. The batsman says the perception that he cannot play against spin bowling is frustrating.

"It's frustrating but it's hard because I haven't really got to play on (spinning wickets) much and even training in the nets you can only do so much," Khawaja said.

"At the end of the day it's not easy for any Australian going over there because it's very uncommon for us to play in those conditions. 

Quick Single: That's drinks: Khawaja ready for cricket

"You see the guys who have been there a lot like Smudger (Smith) who obviously does very well there. The more you play on them the better you get."

The upside of his extended stint on the sidelines in India this year was four months of facing no shortage of all types of local bowlers on all types of wickets.

"You can work on specific areas, which I did when I was over there as I always do, but at the end of the day you’ve got to be playing cricket games to test yourself and put yourself under a bit of pressure," Khawaja told cricket.com.au in May.

"I’ve never been a big one for hitting a million balls in the nets because I like to balance it with game time.

"So if you’re hitting lots of balls in the nets you want to be hitting lots of balls in the game and then you know you’re doing something right.

"It’s tough in that regard. I got a bit of batting time which is nice because there’s lots of little Indian net bowlers that want to bowl. I had a bit of fun trying to slog them around."

Australia in Bangladesh 2017

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade.

Bangladesh squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Islam, Mominul Haque.

22-23 August Tour match, TBC

27-31 August First Test, Dhaka

4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong