Sri Lanka vs Australia Test match: Usman Khawaja hasn’t spotted the finish line yet

Ever since he got the second chance to don the baggy green after it all looked done and dusted in the middle of 2019. He’s never stopped talking about embracing being his own man, either. In keeping him grounded.

Usman Khawaja celebrates after scoring a double century at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

For once, there was no elaborate celebration. No shuffling of his feet. No fancy jigs. No swivelling of the hips. No fun. No frolic. No dab. As we’ve grown accustomed to from Usman Khawaja whenever he reaches a century in his second coming as a Test cricketer since January 2022.

Khawaja instead simply took his helmet off and raised his bat gently towards the dressing-room. He then flashed it towards the big Australian presence in the two grandstands to the right of the Galle International Stadium. The opener then went down on his knees and kissed the turf. It was a show of gratitude. Towards his faith. Towards his belief. Towards his God.

He’d just become the first Australian to make a Test double century in Sri Lanka. And to do it in Galle clearly was special.

In 2016, Khawaja had experienced the ignominy of being dismissed twice on the same day at this iconic stadium. He often talks about how emotionally draining it had felt that evening as he went out for dinner with his wife Rachel. As emotionally draining as dealing with the “Uzzy can’t play spin in the subcontinent” reputation that was thrust on him from that point on.

Here he was back in Galle, nearly nine years later, having already dispelled that myth for good on his previous visit. And proving he now dominates spin in the subcontinent. Probably like few Aussie batters have in history, with the double hundred milestone being the perfect statement piece for one of the most dramatic turnarounds we’ve ever seen in a Test batter’s reputation.

Through it all, though, he’s never stopped smiling. Ever since he got the second chance to don the baggy green after it all looked done and dusted in the middle of 2019. He’s never stopped talking about embracing being his own man, either. Or how he’s found the perfect perspective, and the role that his faith has played in helping him find it. In keeping him grounded. In keeping it real.

Khawaja is aware that the end is near. He insists that he does, even berating me for “beating around the bush” when I ask him about how long he thinks he has left. But he hasn’t spotted the finish line yet. He doesn’t know where it is. He doesn’t want to think that far ahead. But when it is time, he knows he will acknowledge it. Not necessarily leave on his own accord but instead when he thinks his time is up in terms of contributing to the team.

What has changed, according to Khawaja, is that he no longer lives every Test on a knife’s edge as he did for a majority of his career before losing his place during the Ashes in England six years ago. He doesn’t live life with the tunnel vision, either, of every bit of success and every bit of failure dictating how he leads it.

Khawaja also talks with the freedom of a man who’s at peace with himself. At peace with his own world. Most importantly, also at peace with the world around him. Both on and off the field.

He also bats against spin the same way. The ball beating bat doesn’t bother him. The ball jumping and spitting at him doesn’t faze him. He just smiles and continues on, seemingly without a worry in the world. He uses his feet. He uses his crease. And more than anything, he uses the reverse sweep like a batter who rose through the ranks playing cricket in the subcontinent, not someone who was deemed to be not good enough to play cricket here.

Ever since he’s returned to Test cricket, like with everything else, it’s been all about Khawaja doing it his own way.

Whereas from the get-go Steve Smith has always done it his own way. Right from the moment he transformed into a premier Test batter from battling all-rounder, and all the way up to him becoming the 15th in history to cross the 10,000-run mark. Smith getting there at the SCG would have been romantic, but to do it in Galle was poetic, considering some of Smith’s most iconic Test knocks have come in the subcontinent.

It was also fitting he should get there with Khawaja, the man he’s scored most of those runs alongside in his career – 2921 of them to be precise, at the other end waiting for him with open arms as he completed the quick single to mid-on.

I’d written a column before the Gabba Test about how he would make a big score and turn it into the Summer of Smith based on just how happy he’d been with his batting in the lead-up to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

He’s since scored three centuries in four Tests. They’re saying Steve Smith can never get back to his peak again. But think again. At 35, he’s definitely got at least one more tryst with peak greatness left in him, and we are seeing signs he might be on the cusp of entering that phase just about now.

Smith has never found it challenging to be himself. Unlike with Khawaja, who hasn’t always found it easy. Till now.

“I can do what I want,” he’d said famously after his most animated of celebrations after the return Test ton at the SCG against England in January 2022. And that’s what he’s continued to do ever since, and he’s done it the Uzzy way.