The tale of Usman Khawaja told in 12 Test innings

There was a sense of déjà vu watching Jacob Bethell's impressive little cameo last Saturday afternoon at the MCG. Something in the stylish stroke-play from an Ashes debutant, and the hope his 40 runs offered to a country still coming to terms with the manner in which the summer had hitherto unfolded.

Fifteen years ago, in a match that has been much discussed recently given it had for all this time been England's most recent Test win in Australia, another promising young left-hander announced himself in the Ashes cauldron.

Picked to debut for Australia at No.3 (the first time that had happened since Justin Langer 18 years earlier) Usman Khawaja walked out to bat on his home patch, the Sydney Cricket Ground, as a recently turned 24-year-old tasked with filling the shoes of the injured Ricky Ponting.

A grey Monday morning summed up the pervading mood of Australians at the time with regards to their failing cricket team. Two innings defeats in four Tests, and England had retained the Ashes away from home for the first time in 24 years.

The 2006-07 whitewash felt like a distant memory. An Argus Review was approaching. And on a rain-interrupted day one, Khawaja batted for two hours either side of lunch, played some nice shots in scoring 37, and shone like hope personified.

A decade-and-a-half on, we come full circle. The SCG. Khawaja as central character. Introductions turned to farewells.

So what of the years in between? Of the fallow and the fertile times for Usman Tariq Khawaja? It has been a Test career played out in sections – first came the snippets, and then came the more extended stays.

Breaking it down further, you could look at Khawaja's career in two ways.

Firstly, in three acts:

Jan 2011 – Aug 2017 | In his first 24 Tests, he was dropped six times but still scored 1,728 at 45.09, with five hundreds (a record similar to Darren Lehmann's).

Nov 2017 – Aug 2019 | In his next 20 Tests, played consecutively, he made 1,159 runs at 35.12, with three hundreds (a record similar to Matthew Elliott's).

Jan 2022 – Dec 2025 | In his most recent 43 Tests - with one to come in Sydney - he scored 3,319 runs at 46.09, with eight hundreds (a record not far off Dean Jones').

Perhaps more neatly, Khawaja's can be divided into a career of two halves: by January 8, he will have played 44 Tests both before and after turning 35, with the latter phase beginning with his twin tons at the SCG in January 2022.

From the first half, he tallied 2,887 runs at 40.66, with eight hundreds, while his 3,319 runs are the most scored by an Australian over the age of 35.

In all, after 88 Tests, he stands tall in 14th spot on Australia's list of Test runs scorers, between Mike Hussey and Don Bradman.

Let's take a closer look at Khawaja's Test cricket story through a dozen important innings. 

1. 37 v England, fifth Test, Sydney, Jan 2011

The English like to giggle about the fact Australians were very excited by a kid coming in and scoring all of 37 on Test debut, but there is a wider lens through which to view that seemingly outsized sense of promise.

The NSW product had risen through the state pathways and established himself as the second-oldest member of an outstanding young batting quartet that also included David Warner, Phillip Hughes and Steve Smith.

By the time of Khawaja's debut, Hughes and Smith had already played Test cricket (in fact both played in that match) while Warner's Baggy Green would come in November the same year.

"Without realising it, we had a pretty golden era at New South Wales at the time," Khawaja told cricket.com.au. "We were always pushing each other. We were all friends, but everyone was competing with each other.

"I think it actually ended up making us better cricketers a lot earlier than what probably should have (been the case)."

Khawaja had played 27 first-class matches by the time of his Test debut. Having just ticked past 2,000 runs, he was averaging 51.70. In that 2010-11 summer he had already plundered 611 runs at 61.10, including a maiden double century in the Sheffield Shield.

So when he cracked a perfect pull shot for four from his second ball on that rainy Sydney morning, then maturely shouldered arms from the next Chris Tremlett offering, there was a sense that maybe the kid had what it took.

Was it premature? Sure. Was it wrong? Ultimately, no.

Khawaja faced 95 balls that rain-interrupted day and his wicket from an errant sweep shot off Graeme Swann proved an early hint at an issue against high-quality spin that he would need to iron out.

He scored 21 in the second innings and it was enough for him to remain a beacon of light in an otherwise gloomy outlook for Australian cricket. But when they next played a Test match, the landscape had changed: it was August, they were in Sri Lanka, Michael Clarke was skipper, and Khawaja had been shuffled down to six to accommodate the return of Ponting.

Khawaja played the first two Tests, scoring 21, 26, and 13no, but after Shaun Marsh made a century standing in for an absent Ponting in the second Test, it was Khawaja who made way for his return in the third.

Three matches into his burgeoning Test career, and just eight months on from lifting the spirits of a nation, he was out of the side.

2. 65 v South Africa, Johannesburg, Nov 2011

Khawaja made sure he seized his first chance back in the side with this under-rated effort in an epic run chase that squared a two-match series against the Proteas.

Skittled for 47 in the first Test, the Australians put up a far better fight at the Wanderers, though they were left with a fourth-innings mountain to climb in the form of a 310 target.

The visitors were quickly in strife at 2-19, but Khawaja – returning to the side for an injured Marsh – and Ponting steadied across the back half of day four, adding 121 for the third wicket in what would prove a key partnership in an epic two-wicket win.

Khawaja drove Vernon Philander for two fours from the first three balls he faced, but his maiden Test fifty was built off patience and a surety in his leaving of the ball outside off stump. He profited from his preferred pull shot and, in a tense run chase against a strong attack, looked very much the part alongside Ponting until he fell to leg-spinner Imran Tahir in the final over of the day.

It was, in many ways, a fine audition for the soon-to-be-retired Ponting's role in the long term, with the traits that would eventually make him a top-order mainstay on display.

Back home against the Kiwis in December, Khawaja made 38 in the first innings of the first Test in Brisbane, only to be run-out by Ponting, and was 0no in the second innings as Australia cruised home by nine wickets. On a greentop in Hobart, he was out for seven in a team total of 136 in which Peter Siddle top scored with 36, before making 23 – the second-highest score – in a difficult run chase where only Warner's incredible hundred brought Australia close to victory.

Afterward however, he was axed again, this time alongside Hughes, as selectors opted for Marsh and debutant Ed Cowan instead for the upcoming India Tests.

"I remember me and Hughesy, we had to play the Prime Minister's XI game straight after it, and it was the last thing we wanted to do," Khawaja said. "We were so angry – just the way both of us were treated. We'd been through this ringer before."

3. 54 v England, second Test, Lord's, Jul 2013

It was more than eighteen months between Test opportunities. Khawaja had moved to Queensland, unsatisfied that the Cricket NSW environment would get the best out of him under its regime at the time.

He had toured India with Australia, and though he hadn't played a Test, he was in the headlines as part of the 'Homeworkgate Four' who were suspended by then head coach Mickey Arthur, who was replaced in the UK just ahead of the Ashes by Darren Lehmann, who had coached Khawaja at Queensland the summer prior.

Khawaja was recalled for the second Test at Lord's in place of Cowan as the selection merry-go-round continued. Batting at three, the left-hander made an indecisive 14 from 35 balls as Australia were rolled for 128.

In the second innings however, he played with more intent, top-scoring with 54 to prove to the doubters he was a player of substance. It was an innings that caught the eye of Adam Gilchrist, who liked the approach the 26-year-old had taken.

"In the second innings, everything Khawaja did looked really positive – from his first ball to his first forward defence, to his first scoring shot," Gilchrist wrote. "It looked as though he was backing himself."

Defeat though meant Australia had lost six straight Tests for the first time since 1984, amid the days of the mighty West Indies. As a result, virtually no spot was safe, let alone that of a relative rookie. Khawaja scored 1, 24, 0, 21 in his next four innings and for the third time in his stop-start Test career, was dropped after just three matches, with selectors picking another allrounder - James Faulkner - alongside Shane Watson for the fifth Test at The Oval.

Australia returned home and won the Ashes five-nil. On the tour of South Africa that followed, first Marsh and then Tasmanian Alex Doolan made runs, and as his old Blues buddies Smith and Warner came of age, he was seemingly the forgotten man.

4. 174 v New Zealand, first Test, Brisbane, Nov 2015

Khawaja had been through a knee reconstruction and also flourished in the T20 game with Sydney Thunder before he ended a 27-month absence from the Test team.

With Clarke, Chris Rogers and Watson all having recently retired, it was a fresh look for the Test top order under new skipper Smith.

"Everything I've done towards this point now doesn't really matter," he said on the eve of the summer's opening Test against the Black Caps. "It's all about what I do the next game and then the next game.

"I think you'll find it might be my third or fourth go at it. Obviously I didn't take my chances the last couple of times. I'm hoping to take it now."

And take it he did, going stroke for stroke with Warner at the Gabba through a rollicking 150-run stand. Khawaja was positive from the outset, hitting off-spinner Mark Craig for a pair of sixes before a swivelled pull for four brought up his maiden Test hundred from 123 balls. It was his 10th Test and his fourth time in the side. He went on with it, too, scoring 174 from 239 balls across six hours.

"It was just elation, the biggest amount of emotional relief," Khawaja said afterward. "I've wanted to get a Test hundred for Australia my whole life. There were times over the last three or four years I thought it might not happen.

"When it did happen, the build-up of a lot of emotions came out because it's what I always dreamt about. The first one is always the hardest, I've said, so it's massive for me."

The floodgates then opened. Khawaja made 121 in the second Test before returning from a hamstring issue with 144 and 56 against West Indies. Suddenly he was playing with the sort of natural freedom that had been – quite understandably – missing from his early forays into Test cricket, where he felt as though the axe was permanently hovering.

"'Boof' (Lehmann) sort of had a chat to me and just told me to relax," he said later. "He said I'd get a fair crack at it."

5. 140 v New Zealand, first Test, Wellington, Feb 2016

Khawaja's first overseas hundred answered other questions about his technique and whether it would stand up against the moving ball. At the Basin Reserve against Trent Boult and Tim Southee, he left the new ball well and waited for anything loose in his hitting zones.

His patience was rewarded when conditions improved. The pitch flattened out and he and Adam Voges made hay. Khawaja hit 25 fours in his 140, many of them sumptuous cover drives, to dominate a partnership that was played out across two days.   

"I wouldn't say it swung massively yesterday but it did a bit off the deck which made it tough," he said.

The innings was arguably his best yet, his fourth consecutive century in the first innings of Tests, and took his average to 51.05 after 14 matches.

Five months later, Australia were in Sri Lanka, suffering through a three-nil series defeat for which Joe Burns and Khawaja were the fall guys; both were dropped after the first two Tests.

"It was a difficult time for everyone, not just Usman," Warner said after that series. "It's such a tough environment, to be over here."

In the first indication of a potential horses-for-course policy for Australia's Test batting group, Lehmann said: "It's a tough call on those two younger guys but it's only for this Test match. We'll have a look going forward at home."

6. 145 v South Africa, third Test, Adelaide, Nov 2016

In his 20th Test, Khawaja emerged as a senior player in a struggling, transitioning group. For the first time since his debut, Australia had lost consecutive matches at home. Against South Africa, they had been beaten in Perth and humiliated by an innings in Hobart, where they were rolled for 85 on the opening day.

True to his word, Lehmann had recalled Khawaja (though not Burns) for the first Test of the summer, and in the two defeats, the then 29-year-old was Australia's top scorer with second-innings efforts of 97 and 64.

But the Hobart mauling brought about drastic changes, with three batting debutants picked for the pink-ball Test that followed in Adelaide.

And after Faf du Plessis' opportunistic declaration caught regular opener Warner off the field, Khawaja found himself facing the new ball under lights alongside new boy Matthew Renshaw.

The pair survived 12 testing overs against Vernon Philander, Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada, eking out 14 runs, before Khawaja prospered on day two, batting across a full day for the first time in his career and offering a glimpse into his future at the top of the order.

His 145 across almost eight hours was Australia's first hundred of an otherwise painful series amid a time of worry and change. Again it was a performance rooted in patience and an adeptness at capitalising on the few bad balls on offer.

The left-hander was at one point 18 from 80 balls, but he put away the flashy drives and soaked up the pressure, playing the type of mature hand that showed him to be a more experienced player alongside so many fresh faces.

After the humbling in Hobart, Khawaja had not been named by Lehmann as a player certain to keep his place. But this innings – one of judiciousness and self-restraint – was not only a match-winning hand but a clear sign of the high-quality top-order rock he was evolving into. 

7. 141 v Pakistan, first Test, Dubai, Oct 2018

Jettisoned for the 2017 India series after having his cards marked 'cannot play in the subcontinent', then picked in one of two matches in Bangladesh and returning a pair of singles, Khawaja returned to Asia in 2018 a new man.

Having played the home Ashes and all four Tests of the South Africa tour that followed, his streak of nine consecutive matches was comfortably the longest of his 33-Test career.

And with Smith and Warner suspended, new head coach Justin Langer sorely needed his quality and experience.  

Khawaja had spent his winter in the UK, peeling off three hundreds in four matches with Glamorgan. In September, playing one match on Australia A's tour of India, he scored 127 and 40 against India A in Bangalore.

Having stripped seven kilos, he was fitter than ever. And he was also headed to the UAE with a committed approach to spin – one he later revealed was a three-year project aimed at sweeping, and reverse sweeping, slow bowlers into submission.

It worked a treat. Khawaja made 85 out of 202 in the first innings of the first Test in Dubai, then batted almost nine hours in the second innings, soaking up 302 balls as Australia held on gamely for a draw.

In temperatures nearing 50 degrees, he produced the longest fourth-innings effort in Tests for more than 20 years.

The innings contained 21 reverse sweeps – a shot Khawaja perfected over time and one he explained he felt as confident playing as any other in such conditions.

"I started reverse sweeping in Sri Lanka three years ago," he told The Courier-Mail. "It was hard enough at the start to get the courage to play it. I made a decision that I would not let people tell me how they wanted me to play. I had a game plan and I would stick to it.

"I did it a few times against (English leg-spinner) Mason Crane in the Ashes and a few times on turning wickets against (Keshav) Maharaj in South Africa.

"It was not something that came out of nowhere. This series I did it a bit more. It has taken a lot of hard work to get to this stage, even though I have always been able to sweep.

"I feel as likely of getting out playing a forward defence getting caught at back pad as I do reverse sweeping. If I get out that way you may not like it, but out of the rough it is the best way for me to score runs. Us lefties always have to deal with rough.

"It was one of those situations where I just felt I had to score to stay in. If I just blocked it, I would get out."

The count stint, he added, had proven vital in his preparations.

"The best thing I did was go and play some cricket in Glamorgan," he said. "Two out of the first three games were wickets which spun a lot and the spinners bowled a lot of overs. It just reiterated my plan and my mindset."

8&9. 137 & 101no v England, fifth Test, Sydney, Jan 2022

Having shown himself a capable performer in just about all conditions, Khawaja played another 10 Tests before he was dropped for the seventh time in his 44-Test career.

He had underperformed against India during the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar home series, passing fifty just once as the team's senior batter, before finishing the summer with an unbeaten 101no against Sri Lanka – his eighth Test hundred.

Afterward, a breakthrough ODI tour of India in early 2019 (2x 100s) and some strong World Cup performances in the UK (prior to a hamstring strain) kept him front of mind for the Ashes tour that followed.

Through a forgettable series for top-order batters, Khawaja's average of 20.33 after three Tests was far from the leanest, but having failed to produce a decisive innings in the series, he again got the axe.

At 32, many thought it might be for the last time.

"I remember coming down and 'JL' (Langer) told me (I was dropped)," Khawaja told the SMH a couple of years later. "In my heart I genuinely thought I'd go back home, score some runs in the Shield and be back in the team … then when I didn't get back … I thought 'oh well, that's it' and I came to terms with that."

Khawaja is a big believer in fate, that what is destined to happen, will. So perhaps it was destiny when, having narrowly missed out on an Ashes spot at the beginning of the 2021-22 home series, he got a chance at No.5 in the fourth Test when Travis Head withdrew with COVID-19.

At the SCG, 11 years on from his debut, he plundered twin hundreds in a stunning return to Test cricket. In all he batted for more than 10 hours in the drawn match, facing 398 deliveries to make himself undroppable for Australia's next match in Hobart.  

He had just turned 35, and it had been almost two-and-a-half years since the most recent of his 44 Tests.

"This is why I'm such a big proponent that your best players are your best players," Khawaja added. "You go through ups and downs in form, but over time their results will be best. "They may get dropped once or twice, but don't drop them five times."

What he couldn't have known then was, there would be another 44 Tests to come.

9. 71 v Sri Lanka, first Test, Galle, June 2022

After his stirring SCG comeback, Khawaja moved to opener to accommodate Head's return, at the expense of Marcus Harris. Until this summer's Ashes, he was a mainstay there for almost four years – doubling the longest run of his career in terms of consecutive matches played.

Under the Pat Cummins – Andrew McDonald leadership duo, and with an expert understanding of his game gleaned from more than 10,000 first-class runs, he flourished.

On the flat tracks of Pakistan, the country of his birth, he was unstoppable, but it was this innings in Galle that was particularly significant. On his last visit to the Sri Lankan city, he had been out twice in a day, bowled both times by straight ones from Dilruwan Perera.

Six years on, it was a vastly different story. From his first innings of the three Test series, in quite a low-scoring match, Khawaja showed how far he had come, covering the straight ones with his defence, skipping down the pitch to drive, sitting back to cut, and mixing slog sweeps with paddles and reverses to keep the runs ticking over.

It wasn't a chanceless knock but he survived and thrived in challenging spin conditions, again proving the doubters wrong and adding yet another feather to his cap in the autumn of his career.

"The way we play the game and how we talk about the game has changed a lot since I started playing for the Australian cricket team," he said. "We've learned from our mistakes, and guys are all trusting their plans and are able to adapt to different situations."

Almost three years on he would return to Galle once again, stroking a career-best 232 to vanquish the demons of his formative Test years for good.

11. 81 v India, second Test, Delhi, Feb 2023

Twelve years into his international career and Khawaja had never played a Test in India, though he had toured there twice with the Test squad.

After his feats in the UAE and Sri Lanka, he was at last backed to handle the spinning conditions, and it was yet another chance for the veteran batter – now 36 – to make his 'pick and stick' point to selectors.

So when he was out for one and five as the Australians were thrashed by an innings in the series opener, the pressure was on.

After opting to bat first in Delhi, the visitors were three down by lunch but Khawaja was still there, unbeaten on 50. He pressed on through the middle session, batting almost three-and-a-half hours for his 81 off 125 deliveries.

It was a knock of a man comfortable in his processes, patient but proactive with his play, and with a great understanding of the rhythms of a day's Test cricket.

"I just play by feel," he said. "I play by what I think is right for the wicket. I don't go out there thinking I want to play a certain way. I just feel how the bowlers are trying to bowl to me and then I read the game from there. So it's as simple as that. And that's pretty much what I did today."

Australia lost the Test but Khawaja had shown others – and himself – that he could succeed in the spin capital of world cricket against the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja; a belief that perhaps propelled him in the next Test, where his measured 60 from 147 balls was the top score in a match Australia went on to win.

And while his fourth Test marathon of 180 across more than 10 hours might look most impressive on paper, the conditions in that Ahmedabad Test held far fewer demons than the dustbowls of Sri Lanka that had challenged him in the past.

12. 141 v England, first Test, Birmingham, June 2023

India wasn't quite Khawaja's Last Frontier. Twice he had been dropped during Ashes tours. Once – in 2015 – he had missed selection altogether.

Leading into the 2023 series – a decade on from his maiden Test tour there in 2013 – his Ashes record in England read: 12 innings, 236 runs at 19.66.

But this was a different Khawaja. While he headed to the UK with "low expectations" after the challenging conditions top-order batters faced there four years earlier, he flipped the script on his previous brief cameos at the crease and instead – on Bazball pitches built to favour batting – settled in for a number of lengthy occupations.

In the first Test, Khawaja produced a match-winning double of 141 and 65, batting for more than 13 hours – including all of day two. It was a masterful performance, full of pulls and flicks and the occasional drive, and a study in concentration; in all, wholly representative of the back half, beyond 35-years-old career of the opening bat.

It was an emotional response upon reaching his hundred. A roar and a throw of his bat into the air.

"I honestly don't know," he said of the reasons behind his celebration. "I think it was a combination of three Ashes tours in England, being dropped in two of them.

"I'm getting sprayed by the crowd as I'm walking out there today and as I'm going to the nets that I can't score runs in England, so I guess it was more emotional than normal.

"I feel like I'm saying this all the time – same thing happened in India. Not that I have a point to prove, but it's nice to go out and score runs for Australia just to show everyone that the last 10 years haven't been a fluke."

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: England won by four wickets

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (fourth Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue