Aussies need 10 wickets after Khawaja's twin tons

The Test cricket renaissance that Usman Khawaja claimed could hardly have been scripted any better after scoring a century two days ago transcended to the realms of pure fiction when he completed another of even greater ebullience today.

Khawaja followed his first innings of 137 with an unbeaten 101 in the second as Australia recovered from an early wobble to pile on runs and set England a distant victory target of 388 that would defy history and – even allowing for Khawaja's fairytale – credulity.

The only realistic hurdle to Australia taking a 4-0 lead in the lopsided Vodafone Ashes is summer storms similar to the one that bore down on the SCG this evening, with further rain tipped to fall tomorrow morning.

If weather interventions see Australia fall short of the 10 England wickets they require, they may rue captain Pat Cummins' decision to delay this afternoon's declaration until an hour before stumps were scheduled even though his team had clearly batted (and battered) their foes out of the contest.

The fact the tourists posted their best opening stand of the campaign to reach 0-30 at stumps – still 358 in arrears – suggests they are not yet bereft of fight despite the challenging nature of an increasingly erratic SCG pitch ensuring they are running worryingly short of soldiers.

By contrast, Australia continue to find reinforcements at will as shown by Khawaja's extraordinary introduction to the series in which he's already scored more hundreds than the entire England touring party, and his union today with allrounder Cameron Green who was previously unable to buy a run.

The pair put England's flagging bowlers to the sword today, with Green making a mockery of his series average of 14.25 prior to today by belting 74 from 122 balls after Australia were teetering at 4-86.

The uncertainty and technical worries that had been a feature of his batting this Test summer were forgotten as he forged a watchful, then explosive combination with Khawaja who once again stole the limelight as well as the acclaim of Sydney's 20,000-strong crowd.

The 35-year-old became the first Australia player to post a hundred in each innings of a Test since Steve Smith at Edgbaston in the opening Test of the 2019 Ashes, the first at home since David Warner against New Zealand at the Gabba in 2015, and only the third (after Doug Walters against West Indies in 1968-69 and Ricky Ponting v South Africa in 2006) to manage it at the SCG.

Those Ponting innings not only came amid a similar sense of celebration given it coincided with his 100th Test appearance, but they also underpinned the highest successful fourth innings run chase at the SCG of 288.

That ensures England's target to post their first win of a wretched tour is already rendered pure fantasy, but their best hope for staving off a fourth consecutive defeat likely rests with Sydney's capricious summer weather.

Of course, India batted out the final day of last year's third Test to record 6-334 and a comfortable draw but that was on a markedly more benign surface than this Sydney pitch which has shown fluctuating bounce since day two and left a number of players – keepers and batters – nursing hand injuries.

Khawaja's stunning double, having not played any competitive cricket for a month prior to his sudden recall after Travis Head returned a positive COVID-19 result, has also created a weighty problem for Australia's selectors.

Captain Pat Cummins has already guaranteed Head will regain his place for the final Test at Hobart starting next Friday, but so irresistible is Khawaja's current form it would seem laughable to have him resume support duties at Blundstone Arena.

The solution might be to install Khawaja as opener – a position he has filled with aplomb in previous Tests where he boasts an average of almost 97 – at the expense of fellow left-hander Marcus Harris who again missed an opportunity to cement his berth.

Harris posted a crucial game-high 76 at the MCG last week, but remains without a century from 26 Test innings and for the second time in the current Test was dismissed after seeing off the new ball but falling short of 50.

Today, he became left-arm slow bowler Jack Leach's first wicket when Harris aimed an expansive drive at a delivery that drifted away from him and the resultant edge was smartly snared by stand-in keeper Ollie Pope.

Hand injuries to incumbent gloveman Jos Buttler (left index finger) and potential replacement Jonny Bairstow (right thumb) meant England were forced to deploy their third-string option from outside the playing XI.

A fourth-string option, Sam Billings – who has been turning out for Sydney Thunder in the KFC BBL – has been added to England's injury-hit touring party for Hobart, and spent today making a lengthy road trip from Brisbane to Sydney to join the battered and bruised group.

While Buttler and Bairstow were unable to take the field today, allrounder Ben Stokes soldiered on despite clearly struggling with the side strain he sustained while bowling on day two.

However, Stokes's resultant absence from the bowling crease piled an even greater burden on England's still-functioning seamers with the workload becoming less widespread after the morning session when veteran James Anderson was scarcely seen.

Instead, the attack was headed by the tourists' fastest bowler Mark Wood whose energetic if luckless efforts in previous Tests of the series finally gave way to some overdue fortune as he blasted out Warner (3) and Marnus Labuschagne (29) either side of lunch.

Since it was revealed after the Adelaide Test, by former England allrounder turned Queensland assistant coach Adam Hollioake, that Labuschagne prided himself on his ability to avoid being 'nicked off' in first-class cricket his three subsequent dismissals have come via no other method.

The world's number-one ranked Test batter might also be feeling the burden of that accolade having failed to reach 30 in his three innings since ascending to that perch last month.

While Wood filled the role usually filled by Anderson's long-time new-ball partner Stuart Broad by accounting for Warner early in the innings, but with little on offer to the seamers it was left to Leach to continue making inroads and slow Australia's charge.

Initially, that was achieved through his most impressive spell of the campaign during which he doubled-down on his removal of Harris by claiming the rare honour of getting the ball past Steve Smith's bat and rattling his stumps.

With Australia 4-86 and holding an overall lead of barely 200, England might have sensed they were unexpectedly back in a game that appeared all-but gone a day earlier.

But that fleeting fantasy was allayed by the 179-run fifth-wicket stand between Khawaja and Green that began cautiously with the pair adding 63 from the first 20 overs they faced before exploding into an array of strokes after tea.

The next 20 yielded 116 before Green sacrificed his wicket in pursuit of more runs, top edging a slog sweep that climbed high into the unusually clear Sydney sky before Root surely arrested its fall.

Cummins' curious decision to further forestall a declaration that already seemed overdue spelled bad news for Alex Carey, whose haste to continue the free-scoring saw him collect his first golden duck of a nascent Test career.

It was almost as tough for Leach whose shot at a maiden Test hat-trick was denied by the Australia skipper's call to pack it in before he had to head out to bat, thereby leaving a possible 15 overs remaining in the day.

Given that equation was not going to change regardless of whether the declaration came during Leach's over or at its conclusion, it can only be deduced Cummins hoped Carey might bludgeon a couple of boundaries from the two remaining deliveries before the pin was pulled.

As it stood, the target of 388 was far less meaningful than the weather outlook and uncertainty over how many fit batters England have at their disposal.

The results of x-rays to Buttler and Bairstow's hand injuries remain unknown, but if the slightly less-wounded members of the touring party can bat deep into tomorrow there is a prospect that one or both might emerge from the dressing room, swathed in bandages Graeme Smith-style, to try and save the final day.

Bairstow can already rightly claim to have done his bit for the cause, producing a century of rare quality and courage to lift England to their highest total of an under-performing campaign to date, and the only ton yet scored by one of their batters.

The 32-year-old finally fell for 113 to Scott Boland when trying to farm the strike with England eight wickets down soon after today's resumption.

Boland finished his third innings as a Test bowler with 4-36 and an aching right side owing to the heavy tumble he took in his follow-through on Friday afternoon.

But any pain that lingers will be salved by the reality no other Test bowler in the game's 145-year history (with 10 wickets or more) can claim a more miserly average than his 8.72 courtesy of an extraordinary career return to date of 11-91.

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Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nic Maddinson, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena