Khawaja feeling relaxed in Test team

Usman Khawaja says the current Australia Test team is a tightly-knit group that is free of marked age differences and hefty egos and, as a consequence, he feels more comfortable in the dressing room environment than at any previous stage in his seven-year international career.

As players from both teams took a few days break before the incendiary Qantas Tour of South Africa resumes for the third Test at Cape Town next Thursday, Khawaja claimed the fact that a bulk of the current touring party had grown playing with and against each other brought a strong sense of harmony.

And the 31-year-old has revealed he was more upset at being dismissed for an innings-high 75 at a crucial point of the second Test at Port Elizabeth than he was when he lost his wicket playing a maligned reverse-sweep shot when he had scored just six in the opening Test.

Since making his Test debut during Australia’s home Ashes defeat in 2010-11, Khawaja has routinely found himself in and out of the Test line-up for reasons of form and fitness and his current tenure of seven Tests stretching back to this summer’s Magellan Ashes series is the longest he’s enjoyed.

But the surety he’s gained from finally stringing together more than six Test appearances in succession is only part of the reason he now finds himself more at ease in the elite environment.

"I probably feel a bit more comfortable now in this team than I did when I first came back a few years ago," Khawaja told Melbourne radio station SEN as the Australia players undertook a short break in Cape Town before training resumes next week.

"I don’t go out of my way and try to speak up for any reason. but if I think there needs to be something said I say it.

"I’ve got a pretty good relationship with Smudge (captain Steve Smith) and with Davey (Warner, Smith’s deputy) too, which always makes it better. 

"But I think we have a lot of good players and lot of leaders in this team and a lot of captains from other states - Mitch Marsh is also captain now of Western Australia, so it’s nice to have guys around actually thinking about it (leadership) while we are playing. 

"The guys get along really well in this team. 

"The fact that we have all grown up playing with each other, the majority … of us grew up in New South Wales.

"We have all grown up playing together, so there is no sort of older player/younger player (divide) at the moment. 

"There are no egos going around, just all the boys having a good time and playing hard cricket, which makes it a lot easier and makes it a good feel and vibe at the moment."

Despite averaging 41.69 in the pivotal number three batting berth – the best by a regular (30 innings or more) first-drop for Australia since Ricky Ponting – Khawaja continues to attract criticism for the disparity between his performances in Australia versus those on foreign soil.

Throughout his 31-Test career, the left-hander has averaged almost 60 per innings (with five centuries) in 18 appearances at home but less than half that return (average 26.78 with a solitary hundred) from his 13 matches overseas.

He came under renewed scrutiny during the first Test of the current series at Durban which Australia won by 118 runs when he aimed a reverse sweep at left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj that looped limply from his glove and into the hands of South Africa keeper Quinton de Kock.

Having struggled against the left-arm spin of Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath during Australia’s disastrous tour there in 2016, failures that ultimately cost Khawaja his place for the final Test, the awkwardness of that Durban dismissal once again raised questions about his capacity to play spin bowling.

But he denied the maligned stroke was a recent addition to his repertoire to try and combat rival spinners, and added that it’s his job as a specialist batter to score runs for his team and the reverse sweep is now seen as a legitimate run-scoring option in all forms of cricket.

"I played it a few times in Sydney too (during his 171 in the most recent Ashes Test), probably been playing for it for at least the last couple of years," Khawaja told reporters.

"It is a shot, as a leftie, I think is quite valuable, if you can execute it. 

"Whenever you are trying to score runs there is always risk, as a leftie you always have to deal with rough and have to figure out ways to score runs, and I am always trying to figure out a way to score runs. 

"It’s not that big a deal, you play it in one day and T20 cricket all the time, it’s just about having the confidence in Test cricket to execute it.

"There’s going to be times when I try to do it and don’t succeed like in the last game and get out, but I wasn’t going to let that hamper me.

"When I’m out there, I am going to try to score runs and try to play positively. 

"That’s quite important against any bowling attack otherwise it’s quite hard to put pressure back on them."

While his reverse sweep in the first Test became the focus of widespread debate, Khawaja admits he was much more upset about being trapped lbw by Kagiso Rabada late on day three at Port Elizabeth, a crucial moment after he and Mitchell Marsh had fashioned an 87-run stand to take Australia into the lead.

But in the wake of his removal for a watchful 75 in almost four hours, the visitors lost their final five wickets for 53 and the Test match by six wickets with Khawaja revealing that getting dismissed in the shadow of stumps after battling so hard was one of the bigger frustrations of his career thus far.

"It is a pretty bad feeling getting out right at the end (of the day)," he said.

"I don’t really get angry at myself if I make a mistake or things happen, but if I feel that I am in a position to win games for my team or to make a difference in the game, that’s probably when it annoys me and gets to me the most. 

"So it did trigger a little response.

"In my mind, I was making sure it was going to be a decent ball that was going to get me out. 

"I wasn’t trying to go out there and do something extravagant, I was going to grind as long as I could, whether that could be for another half a day. 

"Unfortunately, Rabada bowled a good ball and got me so it was disappointing, but you can’t do too much about that sometimes.

"If you score runs and you don’t win a Test match, it is a crap feeling and if you don’t score runs and win a Test match I can say it’s a lot better feeling."

Qantas tour of South Africa

South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

Warm-up match: Australia beat South Africa A by five wickets. Report, highlights

First Test Australia won by 118 runs. Scorecard

Second Test South Africa won by six wickets. Scorecard

Third Test Newlands, Cape Town, March 22-26. Live coverage

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3. Live coverage