Australia’s talented top-order batsman Usman Khawaja has put in the hard yards, lost weight and raised his fitness levels ahead of Australia’s first Test assignment under new head coach Justin Langer – against Pakistan in October. Khawaja, who made his debut back in 2011 as an impressive 24-year-old, has endured an injury-riddled start-stop career worth just 33 Tests so far. Yet, in the current climate where Steve Smith and David Warner are unavailable due to suspensions, there’s an opportunity for the left-hander to further stamp his authority and retain his place in the top-order.
On his part, he’s making all the right moves and noises – including installing a gym inside his house. “I’ve dropped seven kilos since South Africa – I’m down to 77kg,” Khawaja told the Cricket Australia website in an interview. “I got just about 7:30 in my 2km time trial, which is a PB [personal-best]. I did jump testing the other day and I jumped higher than I have before. So all the markers have been better than I’ve had for at least the last five years.”
“I did it all on my own pretty much,” he said. “I had a month-and-a-half on my own (after South Africa) just doing fitness stuff, going to the gym. I had a space downstairs where I’ve set up my own gym now, I invested some money in that and it’s great. I can just walk downstairs now, do what I want to do.”
“I wanted to get fitter, lose a bit of weight and keep my strength. I’d found it a bit difficult in the past few years, especially after coming back from my (knee reconstruction), to get in the work. It’s always hard coming back from a major injury and it’s only the last 12 months I’ve felt in a good place again, ready to go a bit harder,” he said.
It is still early days to decipher what the new head coach thinks of Khawaja the all-format cricketer. The left-hander wasn’t happy to be left out of the ODI series against England – Langer’s first series on the job – and was quite publicly vocal about it.
“We [Langer and Khawaja] had long conversations. He knew I was disappointed. We had some really good chats. I know the expectations, and I know where I stand,” Khawaja reckoned.
Khawaja is also now part of the Australia A squad that will feature in two four-day games against India A – despite having played in each of Australia’s last eight Tests. He and Mitchell Marsh – who has featured in the last seven of Australia’s Test matches – are the only two senior side regulars partaking in the A tour.
“I’m not going into any game thinking ‘I have to score runs’ – I want to score runs in any game I play. For me, the main thing is if I’m still enjoying it, and at the moment I am. That’s been my mindset the last five, six years. ‘JL’ (Langer) is my fifth coach of Australia now. I’ve been through it all, I’ve seen a lot of different coaches, and I’ve been in and out of the team a lot – especially in my younger years. I’ve learnt to just realise there are some things you can’t control.
“Hopefully I can go out there and do really well in the ‘A’ stuff and the rest will take care of itself. But if I don’t, I know it’s not the end of the world.”
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