Ashes 2021-22: Second Usman Khawaja SCG century heaps pressure on Marcus Harris
Usman Khawaja is on the verge of a stunning return as a Test opener after history-making back-to-back hundreds at the SCG left Marcus Harris’ career hanging by a thread.
Usman Khawaja has forced selectors to consider returning him as a Test opener after history-making back-to-back hundreds at the SCG left Marcus Harris’ career hanging by a thread.
The comeback King once again had chants of “UZZIE, UZZIE” echoing around his old home ground, as Khawaja could barely articulate the “surreal” feeling of becoming only the sixth Australian to post centuries in both innings of an Ashes Test, and only the third ever at the SCG.
Australia declared at 6-265 before England clawed their way through 11 overs in the dark to be 0-30 at stumps.
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They must chase down 358 to win, hold on for 98 overs, or pray for rain as Khawaja’s 101 not out and Cameron Green’s brutal 74 gave Australia a golden shot at keeping whitewash hopes alive.
Former greats are adamant Khawaja has made himself undroppable, and England say they’d be gobsmacked if he doesn’t keep his place for the final Ashes Test in Hobart.
“Very surprised,” said England coach, Graham Thorpe.
“He’s made it very difficult for Australia to leave him out. He looked a better player than when he last played for Australia.”
In his one and only Test this series, not only has Khawaja dwarfed Harris’ total run-scoring across all four matches (238 versus 179), but he also overtook Steve Smith on the series’ tally, leaving Joe Root (253) as the only Englishman ahead of him.
Khawaja joined Warren Bardsley, Arthur Morris, Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden and Steve Smith as Australians to post back-to-back Ashes hundreds, while at the famous SCG, only Doug Walters in 1968-69 and Ricky Ponting in 2005-06 have done what Khawaja achieved.
Fox Cricket experts Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh said Khawaja had put down an irrefutable case to keep his place for Hobart, while fellow former Test star Greg Blewett said the end has come for Harris with his 14 Tests and 26 innings enough of a sample size without a triple figure score for selectors to have seen enough.
TAB bookmakers are preparing to cut Khawaja’s price from $41 to $5 to finish the Ashes’ leading run-scorer after just one match.
But there is one key figure resigned to Harris surviving and selectors dropping the SCG hero after dual tons – and that is Khawaja himself.
And he would agree with the call - Khawaja even going as far as to argue against his own selection.
“If I’m being totally honest, I bat No.5 this Test match and it was a lot of fun, I got runs, and you can’t really compare 5 to opening. It’s a bit like apples and oranges,” said Khawaja.
“Opening is tougher. There’s a big difference.
“At the moment, I’m quite resigned to the fact I probably will miss out. Talking to George Bailey and the selectors about continuity and making sure we have a similar team.”
The immediate future of Harris was already uncertain following the first Khawaja hundred, as the opener left himself exposed to the axe with another teasing innings of 27 on day four.
Travis Head deserves to walk straight back in from his COVID isolation on the back of an early series hundred, while Green was going nowhere anyway – but so exquisite was Khawaja’s second hundred for the game on a tricky pitch it revived memories of the fluent 360 degree strokeplay of his hero Brian Lara as he etched his name into the record books.
Harris is clearly the man in the gun but he found an unlikely ally in Khawaja who has felt let down by selectors previously in his career as a man who has scored as many tons as Bob Simpson, has a better average than Mark Waugh and is about to overtake Victor Trumper on the run-scorer’s list with a superior record, only to play 45 Tests out of the more than 100 Australia has played since his debut.
“Once you get selected in Australia you should get a fair crack at it for a while. You work hard to get up there and be selected. I’ve been on both sides,” said Khawaja.
“I’ve felt that throughout my career a lot of changes were made and I was on the wrong side of them … and I’m the first to say there needs to be structure and stability. I know how hard it is for a cricketer chopping and changing on your confidence. I actually love the processes that the selectors have been taking throughout the series … it sucks, but that’s cricket.”
Khawaja will bide his time until the March tour of Pakistan if he has to, but at the moment he’s just soaking up what has been an extraordinary comeback aged 35 and two and a half years after his last Test.
“It’s a surreal moment,” Khawaja told Fox Cricket of his 10th Test hundred.
“I’ve never got back-to-back hundreds in first class cricket, let alone Test cricket.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. It all worked out pretty well. It doesn’t always happen in life and cricket so it’s pretty special.”
After Khawaja’s brilliant 137 in the first dig, Australian coach Justin Langer refused to rule out the veteran star’s chances of keeping his place for the Ashes finale in Hobart next week, despite Head’s return.
An even bigger issue for Harris than his failure to score a hundred is the fact that in a third of his Test innings he has fallen between scores of about 20 and 40 – with the throwing away of decent starts the original knock on him when he made his Test debut back in 2018.
Blewett said on Channel 7 Harris had to go.
“Usman Khawaja coming off a magnificent hundred, he's opened the batting before, I think that's the way they've got to go,” he said.
Earlier, Scott Boland continued his fairytale Test start with figures of 4-36 as England were bowled out for 294 in their first innings, handing Australia a 122-run lead.
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Originally published as Ashes 2021-22: Second Usman Khawaja SCG century heaps pressure on Marcus Harris
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