Khawaja calls time on 88-Test career with SCG farewell

Usman Khawaja will play his 88th and final Test in the city he grew up in as the veteran batter today confirmed he will retire following the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.

With his extended family in the room including his parents, wife Rachel and two children, Khawaja fronted the press on Friday morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground to announce his exit from international cricket, having informed his Australia teammates only moments earlier ahead of their training session two days out from the series finale against England.

The left-hander had kept his playing future under wraps coming into the summer, but the oldest member of Australia's Test side has now called time on his career a fortnight after celebrating his 39th birthday. He will continue to play for the Brisbane Heat in the KFC BBL and outlined his intention to also remain available for Queensland's Sheffield Shield side.

It will see Khawaja get a traditional Sydney swansong in the final Test of the summer. He bows out as one of Australia's most prolific run-scorers; 30 more in his farewell Test will see him pass Michael Hussey's tally of 6,235 into 14th among Australian men.

Khawaja also leaves a legacy as one of the game's most important players off the field. As the country's first Muslim Test cricketer, he has been a plain-spoken advocate for eliminating racism and providing better pathways for Australians with south-Asian heritage. 

"I'm a proud Muslim coloured boy from Pakistan who was told he would never play for the Australian cricket team – look at me now," Khawaja said during an emotive press conference that lasted the best part of an hour.

The SCG provides a fitting farewell venue. Born in Islamabad before his family emigrated to Sydney when he was a child, he watched games at the historic ground as a child before making both his first-class (in 2008) and Test (in 2011) debuts there.

In addition to ending his long-form career as one of only 18 Australians to have scored more than 15 Test tons (his current tally is 16), he also finishes up with 49 limited-overs caps to his name and two ODI hundreds. 

Usman Khawaja Career Stats

Tests 87* | Runs 6206 | Avg 43.39 | High 232 | 100s 16 | 50s 28

 

ODIs 40 | Runs 1554 | Avg 42.00 | High 104 | 100s 2 | 50s 12 | SR 84.09

 

T20s 9 | Runs 241 | Avg 26.77 | SR 132.41 | 50s 1

Khawaja told coach Andrew McDonald after the fourth Test in Melbourne he would finish up in Sydney.

"It's been tough, I've just wanted to tell everyone," he said.

"I told teammates just then. I didn't think I'd get emotional but I teared up straightaway and I had to compose myself. I finally composed myself and got out what I wanted to say.

"I never thought I'd be the guy that would cry when he retired but I cried straightaway. It just shows what it means to me. My journey has been different to a lot of cricketers in the Australian cricket team. All that emotion built up."

Khawaja, aged 24 on his Test debut, emerged as a ray of light in a turbulent era for Australian cricket, hitting 37 and 21 batting at No.3 in place of the injured Ricky Ponting in the dead-rubber final game of their losing 2010-11 Ashes campaign.

So began a brutal on-again, off-again career that by some estimates has him as Australia's most frequently dropped Test cricketer.

After his eye-catching entrance and move to Queensland the following year, Khawaja then played only eight of a possible 50 Tests over an almost five-year span. He was axed in Sri Lanka (in 2011), again during the ensuing 2011-12 home summer, was then one of four players suspended during the infamous 2013 'Homework' scandal in India, before again being dumped during that year's Ashes tour.

When he underwent a knee reconstruction the following year, Khawaja's Test average stood at 25.13.

Even when the runs came in a flood as he returned to the side for the beginning of the 2015-16 home season, his first four hundreds coming in the space of five Tests, the axe was never far away.

Again, he was dumped in Sri Lanka during the 2016 whitewash as his play against spin was called out. He suffered the same indignity the following year when he was picked for the first Test of a Bangladesh tour and was then dropped for the second.

Khawaja's eagerness to prove his doubters wrong was never more beneficial when, as the senior batter in Australia's first post-Sandpaper scandal Test in Dubai, he made 85 and 141 against Pakistan, the latter a nine-hour epic to save the match.

After facing the selectors' wrath once more during the 2019 Ashes, Khawaja made peace with the likelihood his Test career was over after 44 matches. Fate intervened to ensure he will finish with exactly double that number.

The twin hundreds in his 2021-22 Ashes comeback – where else but the SCG – kick-started the best run of his career as the perfect foil to childhood friend David Warner against the new ball.

Marathon hands of 141 and 65, spending more than 13 hours at the crease, in the 2023 Ashes opener to see Australia pull off a memorable two-wicket triumph at Edgbaston might have marked his most significant contribution to an Australian victory.

While his returns have diminished over the past 18 months – notwithstanding a brilliant, career-best 232 against Sri Lanka in Galle in February – there was one final sting in the tail this summer. Certain to be dropped for the Adelaide Test last month after recovering from a back injury, Khawaja posted 82 and 40 from the middle-order after Steve Smith’s illness handed him a last-minute lifeline, helping Australia clinch the 2025-26 Ashes.

In the four years between his return in Sydney and his retirement announcement, no Australian has scored more Test runs. 

"I just want to be remembered as a humble cricketer who went out there and entertained, and (that) people enjoyed watching," he said.

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: 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), 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