Khawaja keen on keeping cricket 'fun'

Usman Khawaja has had the kind of summer batsmen dream about, but Australia's No.3 says he'll have no qualms walking away from the game when it stops being "fun".

The left-hander has struck four hundreds in five Tests and also chalked up 345 runs at 172 in four hits for the title-winning Sydney Thunder in the KFC Big Bash League.

But his amazing run of form has come after a difficult few years for the 29 year old.

In late 2014, Khawaja tore an anterior cruciate ligament, sidelining him for the second half of last season. At the time, his hopes of returning to the Test team looked a distant prospect.

"A year ago if you told me I would have been in all three formats for Australia I would have just laughed at you," he told News Corp.

"I wasn't even playing cricket."

It was an unexpected tap to captain the Australia A tour of India last June.

"That was massive because it gave me something to aim for and it reiterated to me that the selectors were still interested in me for the next level which was nice coming off a big injury like that," he said.

"That was the starting point and from then on it's sort of flowed. Everything from there to now has gone so quick so I actually haven't noticed the whole limelight thing.

"I like to stay in the moment. Not get too far ahead of myself or look too much into the past.

"I'm just having a lot of fun right now. I made sure that's what I was going to do because you never know what can happen."

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Born in Pakistan before his family emigrated to Australia when he was still a child, Khawaja keeps his religious beliefs private and says he won't be swayed by the expectation of being a role model.

"I just try to be myself. I know I won't make everyone happy. There will be things in my life that people won't be happy about and things in my life that people will be happy about," Khawaja said.

"If being myself means that I'm a role model — so be it. But that's all I'm going to try and do. I'm not going to try and do something else or be something for people that I'm not.

"I would like to think the values my family have taught me and what religion has taught me makes me a good person and I go about life the right way. That's all I try and do."

If not a role model, then certainly a trailblazer in the Sheffield Shield as cricket continues to embrace multiculturalism in Australia.

"You can already see the difference looking around. When I first started playing Shield cricket I reckon I was the only subcontinent guy there — probably the only dark-skinned coloured guy in the whole competition when I first started playing," he said.

"Now you're seeing guys from lots of different backgrounds coming and playing, even when I see youngsters going to clinics and stuff.

"I think Australia in general is growing. I reckon in 10 to 15 years' time we'll start to see a lot more people from different backgrounds coming in and that's what it's all about.

"When you go walk around the streets of Sydney you realise how multicultural it really is. Hopefully that'll filter into the game of cricket too."

Khawaja's form has seen him enjoy enormous popularity with the Australian public this summer, with the social media clamour for his inclusion in the limited-overs sides reaching fever-pitch proportions.

It wasn't always such. In mid-2013, Khawaja was one of four players suspended by then Australia coach Mickey Arthur in the 'Homework-gate' incident on the 2013 Indian tour.

He played three Tests during the Ashes series later that winter in England, but averaged only 19 in his six innings, was on the receiving end of a DRS shocker in the third Test and was dropped for the final match at The Oval.

"I wasn't contributing to the team and all the homework stuff happened in the series before and when I came back I was like, 'I haven't really enjoyed my cricket for the past six months. This is not what I play for. I don't play for the lime light. I don't play for the money'," Khawaja said.

"I said to myself, 'Oh well, I love playing for Queensland'. And I just wanted to make sure I enjoyed playing with the guys back home.

"We won the Matador Cup and I sort of found a happy medium in that tournament and ever since then I've tried to stay on that happy medium.

"Things have been going pretty well since then so I don't think I'm going to change any time soon.

"If cricket ever comes to a time when it's not fun anymore … that's when I'd stop straight away."