Galle: “I don’t care what happens, just make sure you’re on the Sri Lanka tour, I want you on the Sri Lanka tour.”
Usman Khawaja has revealed how Australian coach Andrew McDonald assured him with those words last year that a lean 2024 would not preclude him from another chance to excel on the subcontinent.
Usman Khawaja celebrates his century in Galle.Credit: Getty Images
Following a difficult home summer where Jasprit Bumrah had his number, 38-year-old Khawaja snapped back into the sort of touch that has served him so well in south Asian conditions since 2018, to the point that he was able to become the first Australian since Allan Border to notch hundreds in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.
That he did so in Galle – scene of a horror Test match in 2016 where he was dismissed twice in one day – was another moment for Khawaja to savour in what has been a series of golden late career moments.
“My wife Rachael was here with me, I remember we went for dinner that night down the beach,” Khawaja said of the Test here eight years ago. “It just feels like we’ve had so many of those times, so many great times but then so many tough times in this game.
“No-one sees that. You take the good stuff when you get it, you have one of the greatest players, Steve Smith, as great as he is, he’s only done it 35 times. You have to enjoy the good times and respect that tough times are always going to be there. But nothing lasts forever.”
Khawaja admitted that his run of low scores against India had led to numerous people reaching out to him with unsolicited advice about his future.
“It sucks when it’s a tough summer and I finished the summer off really well, but I had a lot of people telling me how I should go about my career and what I should do from here on in,” he said. “I’m not here for anyone but the team.
“Andrew McDonald, one thing last year he said to me was ‘I don’t care what happens, just make sure you’re on the Sri Lanka tour, I want you on the Sri Lanka tour’. At the time I was like ‘cool, yep’. I’m not just playing because I’ve got a gluttony to score lots of runs. Sixteen, 17, 18 hundreds, that’s not going to make a difference to my life.
“I’m going to finish this game, I’ve got beautiful kids and family and I’ll try to give back as much as I can to the world as I can. But I just enjoy playing cricket. Hopefully I can score runs and contribute to my team, and the rest is up to God. It’s nice to get a hundred after the summer, because it was a tough summer.”
Khawaja said he saw both sides of arguments about whether or not to play Sam Konstas in Galle, but also acknowledged how destructive Travis Head was able to be to set up the day for Australia in the first hour of batting.
Usman Khawaja was out twice in one day in Galle in 2016.Credit: AP
“He’s proven in the past and in one day cricket too he can, a bit like Davey [Warner], change the momentum, whether he bats at five or up the top like here,” Khawaja said. “There’s no right and wrong decisions, there’s so many outlooks on what are you trying to achieve for the future, what are we trying to achieve for this series right now, no matter what happens every Test match is important.
“Heady got the nod and he batted beautifully today. Unfortunate for Sam but he’s so young, he’s got plenty of Test cricket left in him, we all know that. So it was good to watch today.
“We both went after it at the start, I took the offy over his head a couple times, and Heady was doing what he does, and we both put pressure on the bowlers in our own way. The field spread out and then it’s just a war of attrition – how long can you do it for. When there’s a partnership going on it might look a little easier than it is, but you never get ahead of yourself in Galle, we learned that last time.”
Khawaja was at the crease when Steve Smith reached 10,000 runs and recalled his words of acclamation: “I just gave him a big hug and said ‘you’re an absolute legend, you deserve this, and you only get 10,000 runs once, so enjoy it, take your time, savour it’.”
There was humour, too, around the debutant Josh Inglis, who has a Yorkshire heritage, and had his parents Martin and Sarah on hand for his baggy green presentation from West Australian Geoff Marsh.
“Because I’m Pakistani I like to joke about his heritage. I asked him if Geoffrey Boycott was going to give him his cap today,” Khawaja said. “Then we just started throwing lots of Yorkshire players in there. It ended up being Swampy which was great from a WA guy and a great Australian cricketer.
“His Dad was tearing up as he was getting the cap and I made another joke about ‘was that because you weren’t playing for England’. I was really using the gag and running with it.
“But I know what it means because I know what it meant for my dad. The ones who love cricket are the heart and soul, all the Saturdays and Sundays that go into it, it’s very special. He’s a terrific player and I look forward to seeing him bat out there because these conditions will very much suit him.”
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