Usman Khawaja learned to bat within a cover drive of the SCG. There was a natural romance to his Test debut at the ground against England seven years ago. It inspired a bout of full-blown Usmania. The local newspaper devoted more pages than have ever been written about a knock of 37. His mum sat in the Members Stand praying for her boy’s success. The nation watched on in the belief that the stylish left-hander was a worthy find from Ashes rubble.
It took five years for Usmania to come again. Between times he conceded there were moments when he thought he would not make it. Chances came and went, as did injuries and a move interstate. He was nearly 30 and it still had not clicked. Then, for one long and golden summer, the reality matched the visage that had lived in the memory from January 2011.
But this week, there is none of that. Gushing about Khawaja’s cover drive has long since stopped, replaced by nagging questions about his game that felt answered long ago. His career is not at the crossroads but his immediate future as Australia’s No3 is less clear at the conclusion of a series he has not been able to influence in a meaningful way.
Khawaja is smart enough to know all that. He gets that his 2017 saw him twice punted from the side in the subcontinent. He understands spreadsheet columns influence selection as much as capacity and that his added up to an average of 29 last year.
In turn, when Khawaja replaced the scoreless Cameron Bancroft on the second day of the fifth Test, he would have been well aware of what was riding on what happened next. This business, as his Queensland team-mate Matt Renshaw can attest, can move fast.
Just one problem: Khawaja is palpably out of form. So what to do? The only thing he could. Go slow. Limit the risks. Do it ugly. Not a word you associate with the classicist but this was an innings for replacing the natural with the essential.
When driving at Jimmy Anderson early a hand came off the bat in a telltale sign all was not well. The champion seamer then beat the left-hander, so he simply shelved the shot. Tom Curran’s loosener was the type Khawaja has annihilated from the moment he could pick up a bat. On Friday, he chopped just a couple instead.
The new ball dealt with, the real quiz for Khawaja was against England’s new spin twins. One has been putrid and the other was on debut but this was not the day for the Australian to get ahead of himself.
Khawaja watched a Moeen Ali maiden as the battling pair had their first exchange. When settled, he danced with purpose. Then he missed a ball that was better left. It was a timely reminder of what he could not and should not be doing.
Mason Crane’s turn. First up was the archetypal offering of a wrist spinner on debut, pitching halfway down. Khawaja had enough time to pinpoint exactly which grandstand he would plonk it into but patted it to the sweeper for one. The mandatory full toss shortly after got the same. Only when set, in his own time, was the cover drive allowed to boom. Now he was getting somewhere.
With both spinners operating together, Khawaja was beaten again by Moeen from his first ball back. A compelling leg-before shout was denied only by an inside edge. The same over, he hacked across the line off the inside-half of the bat. Back to Ugly Usman. But when Moeen dropped short, his adversary finally had the chance to cut. When overpitched, he clipped. Emboldened, he danced to strike over the spinner’s head. It had been 107 balls of ups and downs but the first act was complete with a half-century to Khawaja’s name.
The day did not get any easier when Crane returned for a much better spell in the final session, nearly drawing a return catch before twice hitting the inside edge. Either could have found a forward short leg. Khawaja responded by dancing once more to launch straight, then was nearly in strife again as Crane clipped his outside edge, the ball bisecting wicketkeeper and slip.
But by now, he was confident enough to be resourceful to get out of Dodge. So out came the reverse sweep. Believers in the unorthodox shot argue that part of its charm is it requires a full-body commitment. Khawaja had that, scoring from each of the three he played as stumps neared. Moeen found his edge one more time but it was played softly enough to neutralise the risk. A moment analogous with Khawaja’s topsy-turvy day.
On the stroke of stumps, Joe Root decided to roll down his own off-breaks. It was a decent enough idea but the long-hop to begin allowed Khawaja into the 90s overnight. There would be no final-over heroics. What he has the chance to do on day three outweighs that. From the scrappiest of starts, a maiden Ashes ton at the place where it all began now awaits. Usmania won’t be the automatic response. Not this time. But some things are more important.
