Ashes 2021-22: Australia denied series whitewash after England pull off SCG miracle

The undroppable will be, well, undroppable. Aussie skipper Pat Cummins confirmed as much after England denied Australia victory at the SCG in one of the great Ashes Test matches.

‘The Silencer’ Usman Khawaja will retain his place for the final Ashes Test in Hobart to complete a stunning comeback story which could end the Test career of opener Marcus Harris.

 

Australia captain Pat Cummins all but confirmed Khawaja was undroppable after his historic twin centuries at the SCG and said the veteran was more than capable of returning to his old position at the top of the order – where he is set to rekindle a bond he started with David Warner when they were seven years old.

Brave England defied Australia’s all-out push for a whitewash on a thrilling day five in Sydney, as the walking wounded held on for a scintillating draw at nine wickets down, which encapsulated the unrivalled theatre of Test cricket.

Catch every moment of The Ashes live and ad-break free during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now >

Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon threw everything at a frantic last three overs with eight fielders – including Cummins in a helmet – crowding the bat and sweating on every delivery.

Smith – only bowling because umpires wouldn’t let Scott Boland continue because of the dark – took his first wicket since 2015 in the third last over to leave only one scalp to hunt – but warhorses Stuart Broad and James Anderson repelled the vultures and robbed Australia of a shot at 5-0 in Hobart.

Australian selectors have a massive decision to make on who makes way for Khawaja, but with Travis Head set to return from his Covid break thanks to a century at the start of the summer, Harris is poised to walk the plank after failing to make a ton in his 14-Test career to date.

Pat Cummins has suffered his first draw as Test captain.

“I think I’ll preface it by saying I’m not a selector. But if someone comes out and hits twin hundreds, it’s pretty hard to go past them for the week after I think,” said Cummins, disappointed after 65 overs lost to rain, and six dropped catches ultimately caught up with Australia, as the series score remained at 3-0.

“The selectors will work through that over the next few days but if someone is running hot, and got a heap of experience like Uzzie, the way he played was just fantastic.”

Warner and Khawaja first played together opening the bowling from opposite ends as kids, but are now poised to reunite as batting partners at the ripe age of 35.

“Childhood brothers, now fathers and I could not be any more prouder of Usman Khawaja’s comeback,” Warner wrote on Instagram.

“We started throwing balls up against a wall at Waverley Oval watching our brothers play cricket.

“Grew up playing the game we love together and against (each other), but now back in the same team living our dreams together. This is what dreams are made of, sharing it with your family and closest friends.”

Cummins and Scott Boland (3-30) were immense in the final hour and a half, nearly willing Australia home in the final 18 overs – as the captain defended his decision not to declare earlier on day four.

The only thing that might save Harris from the axe is if selectors decide Khawaja is no longer an opener, given he has batted exclusively in the middle-order for Queensland since returning from the 2019 Ashes.

But that seems unlikely, with Cummins confident Khawaja is versatile enough to handle the new ball if that’s what selectors decide.

“Yeah, I guess that was why he was a spare batter and picked in the squad originally,” said Cummins.

“It felt like he could replace any batter 1-6 really well. I think he’s hugely versatile. I know there’s been question marks historically about him playing over in Asia but you see how well he’s played spin recently, reverse sweeping, sweeping, he’s just someone who is in total command of his game and that’s why you love experience.

“Two centuries rarely happens in a career. For someone to come back (and do that) in their first Test; fantastic.”

Numbers show that Khawaja is one of the better batsmen of his generation and the fact he has played significantly fewer Test matches than his contemporaries indicates he has been dealt a rough deal by selectors throughout his career, which is now being rectified.

Khawaja’s historic back-to-back hundreds at the SCG has put him in elite company as one of only 10 international batsmen to have scored 10 career hundreds or more since 2015.

Remarkably, he’s done so at a better rate per innings than the likes of Warner, Azhar Ali, Joe Root and Cheteshwar Pujara – yet has played only 36 Tests in that period and missed 30, compared to everyone else on that top 10 who have been provided largely uninterrupted runs.

For a point there Boland even surged past Cummins on the wicket-taking tally for the series, until the captain roared back with his inspiring spell at the death when Australia needed it most.

Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson embrace after the moral victory.

Cummins also revealed he was willing to risk losing to try and keep an Ashes whitewash alive, as the captain explained his day four declaration.

Some felt Cummins could have given his team more time to bowl out England, but that would have meant a Mike Atherton-style declaration on Khawaja and the fast bowling destroyer said on Sunday night he felt the 110 overs should have been enough.

Cummins felt rain was Australia’s biggest enemy, as the SCG racked up its fifth draw from the last eight Tests.

“I don’t think we needed to hand it to them on a platter, but for sure, we were willing to risk England winning. I thought around about three and a half runs per over (for 110 overs) … still gave them a little bit of a cherry if a couple of batters got in,” said Cummins.

“The weather played a bit of a part in this game. And we basically learnt that that you can’t predict it at all.

“I thought the wicket was still not playing too many tricks. I thought if they batted really well they 350 is pretty achievable out there. I wanted to give us enough time. I thought 110 overs is enough time.

“We had the luxury after the way Greeny (Cameron Green) and Usman (Khawaja) batted to have enough runs in the bank that we could effectively attack for those 110 overs.”

READ MORE IN THE BLOG BELOW

Originally published as Ashes 2021-22: Australia denied series whitewash after England pull off SCG miracle

Updates