Leadership will come naturally: Khawaja

Usman Khawaja says little will change from his perspective when it comes to leadership in Australia's Test set-up without their two biggest names, insisting he was very much a senior figure in the side prior to Tim Paine being appointed captain of the national team.

As the No.3 and most capped member of the batting group (his 33 Tests marginally trump Shaun Marsh's 32), Khawaja is unconcerned about the imminent and much-discussed unveiling of a vice-captain, suggesting instead that natural leaders within Australia's touring party will emerge in the absence of suspended pair Steve Smith and David Warner. 

"Other than the captain, who has got the biggest say in the team, I think the other guys who naturally like to lead will naturally just lead," Khawaja told cricket.com.au. "With their actions, with their work – it just happens.

"You don't need to put a tag next to it – whether you're vice-captain or in the leadership group or whatever, it just happens.

"And we do have a lot of leaders in this team … a lot of state captains, a lot of guys who have done that sort of role. But at the end of the day it's about performing, too … because talk is cheap."

As Queensland captain, Khawaja is the semi-regular leader of the four other Bulls players in Australia's 15-man squad for the two-Test series against Pakistan, while only the elder Marsh brother has more first-class matches to his name among the batting group.

The 31-year-old, who grew up playing rep cricket with and against Smith and Warner in Sydney before the trio made their first-class Blues debuts within 13 months of each other in 2008-09, is comfortable continuing playing the role he has been since he returned to the side as a more regular feature in November 2015.

"I'm not going to go out of my way to change anything," Khawaja said. "Even when I came back in the last couple of years I felt like a leader anyway; I've played as much cricket as Smith and Warner, not at Test level but at first-class level, we all grew up playing together.

"I've played as many games as anyone else in that team, in first-class cricket scored pretty much as many runs as a lot of the other guys.

"I always felt like it was my responsibility – especially batting at three, which is a lot of responsibility, with usually Dave up the top, then the captain (Smith), who is the best player in the world, coming in behind me – to make sure I'm doing what I need to do to make sure (Smith) gets the best opportunity to do what he needs to do, which is a really important role."

Khawaja comes into the Pakistan series in red-hot form, having scored centuries against both the white and red balls on Australia A's recent tour of India. Prior to that, he made hundreds in three straight County Championship matches for Glamorgan, giving him four three-figure scores in his past five first-class matches.

The left-hander played three Tests against Pakistan – the country of his birth – in the home summer of 2016-17, making scores of 4, 74, 97, 13, and 79no and mastering the wiles of highly-regarded leg-spinner Yasir Shah in the process. He is cautious however, not to take too much from those performances, given the different conditions in which they are set to resume hostilities.

"I don't think it plays too much into it – we were playing in Australia," he added. "I expect the wickets will probably start off quite well in Dubai but will break up a fair bit and start turning.

"So it's different conditions and Yasir Shah has done really well in those conditions, and you've got to respect him for that."

Qantas Tour of the UAE

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Ashton Agar, Brendan Doggett, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc

Sep 29 - Oct 2: Tour match v Pak A, Dubai

Oct 7-11: First Test, Dubai

Oct 16-20: Second Test, Abu Dhabi