A heartfelt farewell to end one of the most meaningful careers in Australian cricket
Few players are as warmly liked throughout international cricket as Usman Khawaja, and fewer still have crossed so many barriers and borders.
A heartfelt farewell to end one of the most meaningful careers in Australian cricket
Bowled through the gate by off-spin, a form of bowling about which he has been brutally sceptical, Steve Smith shook himself out of his bubble of disbelief in time to clap the batsman coming onto the Sydney Cricket Ground to replace him.
It was 1.24pm and Usman Khawaja was on the arena.
Australia were 3-92 and yet to stumble into the pit of panic from which, eventually, they would crawl out triumphantly. Khawaja blinked away the sunlight and walked across the stencil in front of the Members Stand that said: “Thanks Uzzy #419”.
The English players formed a generous guard of honour. The umpires, Ahsan Raza and Chris Gaffaney, broke character and probably some convention of impartiality to applaud Khawaja to the centre square, where Marnus Labuschagne was waiting with a hug.
Khawaja had found it tough to concentrate in his first innings, and he later spoke of how difficult it was to maintain focus throughout this match. His daughter had said to him on Thursday morning that she was happy she would be able to spend more time with him from now on (she’s not a teenager yet.) She was living in the joyous moment, but her father was struggling.
Taking guard at the Paddington End, Khawaja blocked out his first ball from Will Jacks and watched Labuschagne play out an over from Josh Tongue. Outwardly, Khawaja seemed relaxed, dragging the toe of his bat as he strolled down the pitch for a chat.
Usman Khawaja leaves the SCG in his final Test.Credit: Getty Images
He got off the mark with a nice paddle-sweep off Jacks for four, but the nerves showed a few balls later when he checked another sweep and popped the ball inelegantly to a vacant silly mid-on.
Then there was a nick that, had Ben Stokes not been lame, the England captain might have caught right-handed at slip. Khawaja jogged through for what would be the last two of his 6229 Test match runs.
For the next 10 minutes, he was a spectator as Labuschagne monopolised the strike. Labuschagne slashed Tongue to gully where Jacob Bethell dropped England’s 15th chance of the series, one that, if taken, might have ruined Khawaja’s stated wish for the day, which was only to win.
