Australia tour of Pakistan: Usman Khawaja opens up on how he deals with being a multicultural pin-up boy

He’s back in the country of his birth but while Usman Khawaja admits ‘it’s pretty cool’, he remains intrinsically a man of the world and a friend to everyone. Just ask David Warner.

The narrative demands we celebrate Usman Khawaja’s Pakistan roots, his childhood memories of dusty roads, bustling bazaars, relatives huddled under head scarfs and low ceilings.

The street cricket. The mosque. Pakistan’s prodigal son returns and kisses the ground his tiny feet once trod unsteadily upon.

Khawaja is, by reflex, a contrarian. Doesn’t like being type cast; particularly when it was talk of a laid back attitude and weakness against spin, less so when it comes to his ‘otherness’, but that’s not a story he is willing to bend to others expectations.

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Family man Uzzy with his daughter Aisha at the SCG Ashes Test.

Even before the obvious question is asked he shuffles his feet and deflects the notion.

“I keep getting asked by people ‘how do you feel’,” he offers.

“To be honest, at the end of the day, it is pretty cool I am going back to the country of my birth, but at the same time I’m so Australian, I grew up here my whole life.

“Yes, I am from there, I was born there and it is a series that hasn’t been played for a long time, but I guess they’re all trying to find an emotional angle.

“I am, to some extent, connected to the culture, I have grown up as a Pakistani Australian in a lot of respects, but the whole subcontinent is pretty similar and I have been saying that to the guys that they aren’t going to find it too much different to India, it’s very exciting but at the same time it is business as usual.”

Khawaja’s pragmatic approach is understandable, so much effort is taken trying to fitting in, downplaying your otherness and the next thing you know you are a made-man and everyone wants to celebrate your - and their - cultural diversity.

Be our multicultural pin up boy, please.

He’s always said that it was when he stopped trying to fit in that he found himself and his place in this country.

Khawaja scored twin centuries in the SCG Ashes Test.

Pushed for an anecdote from the Pakistan community here about Australia returning to play a Test match for the first time in 24 years, he says that the members of the Islamic community he spends time with are from many nationalities, as were his school friends, university colleagues, teammates.

“I don’t mix with just one nationality,” he says before adding with a smile:

“I’m the people’s champ - I make friends with everyone.”

Over the past decade or so David Warner and Khawaja have made passing references to the long roots of their relationship. If you stay very quiet and listen carefully you observe a respect and care for each other deeper than usual.

When Warner was one of three punished for the sandpaper incident - and the one who received the greatest punishment - you could see it sat badly with Khawaja who seemed to believe there was some injustice done.

Khawaja didn’t like the way cricket was played then, he’s said since that Justin Langer brought humility back to the dressing room and that change was a positive one.

During the summer a photo of Warner and Khawaja walking out to open the batting as 12 year olds surfaced. Khawaja tweeted it on the eve of them being reunited as opening partners in the fifth Ashes Test. The text read: “keeping it real since the 90s”.

It’s a beautiful picture, one moment in a lifetime they’ve spent at the same clubs, in the same cars travelling to rep games, in the same teams, sharing the same dream, staying at the same country motel.

Usman Khawaja and David Warner have played Test matches together since 2011.

An odd couple: Warner the suburban boy, raised in the Matraville commission flats, Khawaja the immigrant son who lived in a small apartment between the Warner’s and the SCG.

Paul Kelly smelt something strong in the relationship and wrote a verse in his summer song Khawaja.

“Khawaja loved the game of cricket since he was a boy, with his good friend Davey it was their pride and joy.

Khawajaaaaaaaa.

He took the train down to the SCG, he said Dave one day we’ll play there you and me.

He loved his bat and ball and gloves, he loved his batting pads, played a million weekend games in front of mums and dads.”

There’s no train from Matraville, but the sentiment is sure.

Khawaja recalled the photo during an interview with News Corp.

“We were probably 12, by then we’d been playing against and with each other as six or seven year olds in the under 10s, we’ve been playing together for a long time, it is not often that two guys from the same club go on and play for Australia,” he said.

Khawaja and Warner are still playing Tests 11 years after their debuts.

“Me and Davey always got on, our families have known each other for a long time to, my brother used to play with his brother, they were the same age funnily enough, that was how we first met then we started playing together.

“My mum and dad know his mum and dad quite well, obviously there was a lot of shared travel, there’s a whole family connection there.”

Tim Paine and Matthew Wade grew up in the same neighbourhood and learned their craft together in backyard battles, but the coming together of the Khawajas and Warners through cricket all those years ago may be the multicultural narrative people were seeking to celebrate in the first place.

Peter Lalor is covering the first Australian tour of Pakistan since 1998.

Originally published as Australia tour of Pakistan: Usman Khawaja opens up on how he deals with being a multicultural pin-up boy