Former Australia captain Michael Clarke is against the idea of Usman Khawaja's inclusion into the playing XI for the third Ashes Test. Though he believes that Khawaja will be recalled by selectors for the upcoming match, he is in favour of the team sticking to the same batting order.
Notably, Khawaja had sustained back spasms during the first Test and had gotten ruled out of the second match in Brisbane as he failed to recover in time. Even during the first Test he was unable to bat as an opener and was dropped down to No.4 due to the injury and didn't even come out to bat in the second innings.
Australia's opener conundrum
However, in his place, Travis Head and Jake Weatherald stepped up as the openers and performed well in both the first and second Test. They formed a partnership of 75 in the first Test in Perth and then a 77-run stand in the first innings at the Gabba. With an impressive opening duo at their hands already, Clarke believes Australia shouldn't be trying to fill Khawaja back into the squad.
"I think the selectors will pick him. I think he'll be back at the top of the order. I don't know if I would make a change, to be honest. I think I've said before, normally with senior players like that and certainly when you get to that age, you're selected for big tournaments, either a World Cup or an Ashes series, and at the end of those, your time is done," Clarke told ESPN's Around The Wicket.
"Australia are 2-0 up. We've got someone at the top of the order that scored an unbelievable hundred. I don't know if they need to go back to that now. I know that might be hard on Uzzy because he's had a wonderful career and been a big player. His spot wasn't spoken about before a ball was bowled in this this series, but things have changed. Australia's dominating, their style of play is working, so I don't know if I would go back to that," he added.
Australia well-ahead in the series
Meanwhile, Australia currently lead The Ashes by 2-0 after comprehensively defeating their arch-rivals by eight wickets in both the first and second Test. They were by far the better team in both the batting and bowling departments and will be hoping to maintain their red-hot form in the third Test that will commence from December 17 at the Adelaide Oval.