It all started from a simple reply to a comment. One of you insightful Roarers out there mentioned earlier this week that you weren’t completely sold on the idea of using one-day and Twenty20 cricket as a build-up to a Test series.
My reply was something along the lines of, “I agree, but I’m very glad that that’s what they’ve done with Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja.”
And I meant it. Hughes is still finding his feet again in the Australian set-up, and Khawaja’s inclusion in the Aussie one-day side will be his only chance to re-accustom himself to the national team ahead of an expected and deserved recall for the upcoming four-Test series in India.
Both Hughes and Khawaja will make their ODI debuts in Melbourne today.
All these comments were made before the penny dropped for me while watching Khawaja bat on Wednesday night in the Big Bash League.
As I watched Khawaja batting with Sydney Thunder teammate Chris Gayle, it was unsurprisingly obvious how different their methods to reeling in the Melbourne Stars’ score were.
Gayle is well known for his complete lack of subtlety, of course, and he often sees no point in taking an easy single when there’s a fence to be cleared. He lives by the long-handled sword, and up until his 65 at the MCG, he’d been dying by the sword all tournament. Up until Wednesday night, Brad Haddin rather had a point.
Khawaja, for the 4.4 overs that he and the Windies master blaster batted together, just went about his business compiling a score without the dramatics or the sledgehammer approach. Khawaja did clear the mid-wicket fence at one point with a superbly well-timed pull shot, but like he did throughout the BBL this summer, he made his runs with proper, orthodox cricket shots.
And it was here the penny dropped. His white-ball form could just be the red-ball making of Khawaja in the Australian team once again.
After a pretty ordinary season for New South Wales last season, Khawaja made the well-publicised move to Queensland. Numerous reasons have been suggested for his relocation, including the notion that he saw no avenue for improvement in the existing NSW set-up (which is now under complete review, following the mid-season sacking of coach Anthony Stuart), and a desire to re-energise his game under the tutelage of Bulls coach Darren Lehmann.
That move, now, looks likely to result in a reintroduction to his six-Test-old Baggy Green.
Khawaja’s season started beautifully, with a well-made 88 in Queensland’s first Shield game of the season. He followed that with two more Shield fifties and his first Shield century for the Bulls on a rough Bellerive deck in Hobart, as well as another fifty for the Cricket Australia Chairman’s XI he was captaining against Sri Lanka in Canberra.
However, what was really interesting among all this was his sudden effectiveness in the Ryobi Cup one-dayers. Where Khawaja was little more than a bit-part player in the limited overs games for NSW, he’s played in all five of Queensland’s white-ball outings this year and has three fifties to his name, all at a decent clip.
We often lament that the days of the 1000-run season might be behind us, but as of the other night, Khawaja currently sits with 957 runs to his name across Shield, Ryobi Cup, the BBL, and the Chairman’s XI tour match.
He’s topping the runs tally for Queensland in both competitions, and was the standout Thunder batsman by the length of a Chris Gayle six. His strike rates have lifted across the board compared to both his career figures and his last season for NSW.
With the possible exception of Bulls teammate Peter Forrest last season, Khawaja might just be Queensland’s best-performed New South Wales import since Greg Inglis.
This form has unsurprisingly flowed into his Big Bash form, too, where from the couch it appears as though he’s enjoying his time in the middle with Gayle particularly, however short-lived it’s been.
What’s been most impressive has been that Khawaja has just gone out there and batted. He’s ignored the garish uniforms, the DJs, the fireworks, and just batted. He’s turned the strike over well, put away the bad balls, and yes, even cleared the rope when the opportunity has presented.
You might imagine that Lehmann’s message is as simple as “Just go out there and bat”, and Khawaja is doing just that and more.
Today, he has the chance to show his wares on the national stage again, in what will be a massive opportunity ahead of the Indian series. As he’s done all season so far, he just needs to forget about the colour of his clothes, and the colour of the ball, and just bat.
The ability to turn over the strike is vitally important in limited-overs cricket, but so will it be crucial in building partnerships in India. One the reasons Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey were so successful a batting partnership was the relative ease with which they changed the strike over.
Khawaja’s done that well in the BBL, and he’s well equipped to do the same in the one-dayers, and in India, too.
Khawaja is a decent player of spin, has shown he’s not scared of leaving his crease, and again, importantly for the subcontinent, has the soft hands to cater for late surprises.
His time has arrived, again. This time he can make it for good.
Muralidaran Ramesh Somasunderam
Guest
I don’t know what to make of the present Australian cricket selectors. They seem to pick certain players on subjective factors. May be state biases or any other subjective factors is determining their judgment or outlook. Who knows?. Nevertheless everyone will agree objectivity has and seem will not prevail, unless the panel changes. I also wish to state that Australian cricket coach must only be employed to coach the team, and his input in the selection process should be nil and the captain should only have his ay, if when travelling overseas, all the national selectors cannot be present due to the expense and distance factor, especially the expense facto. But, I will not want or wish the current Australian cricket coach or any coach that follows the present one, does have anything to do with deciding the eleven to be selected to play for this country, Test Match or One Day. This is the time objectivity may come into play once again for commonsense, fair play and justice to prevail and exist.
matt h
Guest
I think the overall point is that the kids of today will look back with the same rose coloured glasses on MJ and Watto that we do on our favourites of years gone by. My 10 year old son idolises Johnson and thinks he is the best player ever, despite all evidence to the contrary. I remember as a 10 year old thinking exactly the same way about David Hookes.
matt h
Guest
And from memory Australia A got knobbled. I am vague on the details now, but their best bowler (?) for the series was called up to the Australian team and then made 12th man. Can anyone else remember something like this? I alsoi remember Tubby being an unhappy little captain going around the country as the second most popular Australian team on show. Everyone loves the underdog.
Red Kev
Guest
The selectors showed their class (i.e. none unless you're a redneck who approves of that sort of thing) by pulling Khawaja from the lineup after one match. Unsurprisingly Maxwell and Smith contribute nothing in his place.
Bayman
Guest
GT, I guess this is not the time to mention that Richie has three Test hundreds to Watson's two and twenty-three f/c hundreds to Watson's seventeen. I grant you Watson's Test average is 37 against Richie's 24.45 but then Benaud batted mainly at seven or eight and his job was often to score quick runs. But he could bat, GT, and one of those Test hundreds ranked among the fastest of all time. And when you say "Watson gives away some bowling" it is by some margin. 62 Test wickets at 30.06 to Benaud's 248 at 27.03 and 196 f/c wickets at 27.98 to Benaud's 945 wickets at 24.73. Watson is a long way short of being a better all-rounder than Benaud - even as a batting all-rounder and Benaud was definitely considered a bowling all-rounder and, as such, has few equals in Australian cricket.
Bayman
Guest
Cameron, I hadn't really thought much about the ODI format being used to blood players for Test cricket or, at least, give them a platform to shine and then on my way to Sydney for the Test I saw on the motel tv a replay of an old Australia vs Australia 'A' one-dayer. The 'A' team included Hayden, Blewett, Langer, Lehmann, Ponting and (I think) Law. I was left wondering about the current quality of our next tier batsman compared to that lot. From memory Australia won the match but it went to the last ball of the last over. I would be nice to think that in ten years time we will be congratulating ourselves for having the likes of Bailey, Khawaja, Hughes, Burns, Head, Finch, Maddinson etc. as back-up.
Bayman
Guest
JamieJ I'm glad you cleared that up - having seen a lot of both Davidson and Johnson I can definitely say that Johnson is not in the same class as a bowler. That statistical fact you mentioned - Johnson has more wickets than Davidson in a similar number of Tests - I also mentioned last year to a former Australian captain. His comment was along the lines of, "It just proves that stats do not tell the whole story". The ex-skipper was clear in his view that Johnno was not in Davo's class. I suspect that one of the factors is that modern batsmen are generally not as good defensively as they were in Davo's day while the bats, padding, ropes, helmets etc. have greatly added to a more attacking style today from most batsmen. Both of these things help Johnson take wickets. It would be very interesting to see how Geoff Boycott might have batted today but I guess we'll never know (although, curiously, he once held the record for the fastest domestic one-day hundred in England).
Bayman
Guest
That line of thinking is very Saad.
Bayman
Guest
Talisman, Yes, I believe Law has gone back to the Centre of Excellence.
Rohit
Guest
Agree with you Dean, Khawaja will show his class in Adelaide, cna't wait.
JamieJ
Guest
Lets be clear-I definitely am not saying that Johnson is better than Davidson! Would near cut my fingers off before I typed something like that. What I meant was that he (and Watto) will likely retire with successful careers and, 15 years post retirement, they'll be considered successful. It's like, when we (or I at least) think of Jeff Thomson, I imagine the pre-shoulder injury lethal weapon, not the later version who struggled a bit at times. When I think of David Boon, my memory skates over the late career fade. I suspect that MJ doesn't have a huge amount of games left, and I think he should be remembered for the 2009 version, not the 2011 vintage disaster.
Roger
Guest
Anyone else notice how much Nuwan kulasekera unnerves the aussies. We are very keen to see the back of him let me tell you. They've worked out he doesn't like the ball rising at the body so there will be no respite for him in this series, he can expect more of the same unless he works out how to deal with it. . Good batting by Chandimal and Dilli. Chandimal scores all around the ground and looks neat and busy. He should be a goodun for SL for years with any luck. .. pity we didn't get to see Khawaja tee off as he was unlucky to be run out, but he is a classy batsman and will come good next time. we didn't need the extra 10 overs as it turned out, but that 5th bowler IS a problem. Pity Watson has all but given up on the bowling. He's a very handy 5th bowler to have in the team as top order bat.
Dean
Guest
We showed today that we didn't put a B grade side, this was a team full of in form players. I know Hughes batted well but Bailey looked good as well. Khawaja will show his class next game and and was unlucky to be runout. He got back in time but what happened to him can happen to any one,can't wait to see him get a big one next game. And how good was Khawaja's fielding to get Dilshan run out,showing just how much is fielding has improved under boof. And what about David Hussey's hitting at the end, fantastic.
Brewski
Guest
Usman, that was a pathetic runout, very amatuerish, even kids know to run the bat along the ground. I may be harsh, but i don't accept that from a supposed Australian player, no excuses IMO.
Jake
Guest
Hey Ryano On a seperate & unrelated topic completely, do you have an article on the Lakers coming out? Would love to hear your thoughts on their performance this season.
TheGenuineTailender
Roar Guru
Watson's talent should carry him into the fond memories of a generation. Mitchell Johnson could play another four or five years of test cricket. If he does, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes well past 300 test wickets. This is all hypothetical of course. But there's no denying the possibility.
brendon
Guest
Not a bad point, I doubt that MJ and Watto will ever be considered greats, maybe Warner and Patto are better examples, but for me the whole not putting your best team on the park thing takes away some enjoyment.
AndyMack
Guest
Not a great ODI player?? He has been a gun in ODI's in recent years.
Brett McKay
Expert
James, Jono Dean could even open in that team and push Khawaja to 3 and everyone down one. He's a pretty decent bat, the current ACT captain and was pretty close to being picked up by the Renegades in the BBL this season..
Brett McKay
Expert
So, you give a bloke a wrap, and this is how he repays you!! :lol: