Usman Khawaja profile: Career stats, Test, ODI, T20I appearances, Ashes record

Usman Khawaja took more than a decade to cement his place in the Australia batting line-up, but he has become a key figure in their successes in recent times.

The classy left-hander started out as a middle-order option, but has moved to the top of the order, where his steady approach to run-making has proved to be a perfect fit.

His limited-overs career for the Baggy Greens appears to have ended some time ago, with Khawaja having not played in a T20I since September 2016 and not featured in 50-over international cricket since the 2019 World Cup in England.

Career record

	Matches	Innings	Not Outs	Runs	Highest Score	Average
Test	73	131	12	5,451	195*	45.80
ODI	40	39	2	1,554	104	42.00
T20I	9	9	0	241	58	26.77

Ashes record

Matches	Innings	Not Outs	Runs	Highest Score	Average
19	35	1	1,378	171	40.52

Test success takes time to arrive

Khawaja first gained selection for the Australia Test team during the ill-fated home Ashes series of 2010/11 and he, like most of his team-mates, struggled to make runs against a dominant England attack.

He fell out of favour late on in the same year, returning for the 2013 Ashes series in England, where he again failed to nail down a spot and drifted away from the Test team.

Back on home soil in 2015 he seemed to have made the breakthrough with two centuries against New Zealand and one against West Indies, before adding another versus the Black Caps in Wellington.

His 145 against South Africa at the Adelaide Oval in November 2016 was notable as it was the first time he opened the batting in Test cricket, signalling that he would be well suited to going in first.

Khawaja dropped back to his more usual number three spot for the most part of the next few years, as he made runs consistently in Australia, only to struggle for form away from home.

Again, there appeared to be a turning point when the now 37-year-old made 85 and 141 in a Test match against Pakistan in Dubai in October 2018, with Khawaja opening the batting once more.

However, after a run of just one century in his next 18 Test innings, Khawaja was dropped and was away from the Test arena from the 2019 Ashes series in England until his recall against the same opposition in January 2022.

Ashes return kickstarts Khawaja

This time Khawaja grasped the opportunity with both hands, making 137 and 101 not out in the Sydney Test and he backed that up with a superb series in Pakistan, where he made 496 runs in five innings, averaging a massive 165.33.

A return to the SCG in January 2023 saw Khwaja make a career-best 195 not out against South Africa, while later the same year he was the leading run-scorer on either side in the Ashes series in England, totalling 496 runs at 49.60.

He has continued to be consistently in the runs since then, although the 141 he made at Edgbaston in June 2023 is the last time he reached three figures, which was 24 innings ago.

Khawaja is now adjusting to having Steve Smith as his opening partner and appears to be a shoo-in for the foreseeable future with Marcus Harris having lost his Cricket Australia contract.

White-ball impact has been limited

Khawaja has never been able to establish himself as a regular in either the ODI or T20I teams, making less than 50 appearances across those two formats.

His high point in the 50-over games came in a series in India in March 2019 when he found some almost unbelievable form.

The left-hander made scores of 50, 38, 104, 91 and 100, with those two tons the only times he has reached three figures in the white-ball game.

Indeed, it was only a matter of months later that he made his final ODI appearance to date, making 18 in a defeat by South Africa at Old Trafford, Manchester during the 2019 World Cup.

Khawaja’s T20I was cut short way back in September 2016 after just nine appearances, with his best effort 58 against Bangladesh during the 2016 T20I World Cup in India.