Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has revealed that Usman Khawaja is being considered to play as a middle-order batter in the upcoming third Ashes Test that will begin from December 17. The 38-year-old had been ruled out of the second Test after sustainng back spasms in the series opener at the Optus stadium in Perth. However, he has fully recovered from the setback and is open for selection. There have been a lot of speculations as to if Khawaja will return in the upcoming match or not.
Australia's opener conundrum
Notably, Khawaja will turn 39 during the third Test in Adelaide, and will become the first Australia Test player in 40 years to play at that age if he gets selected. Though at first he was expected to return as an opener, the recent success of Travis Head and Jake Weatherald at the top has made things tricky. The duo formed fifty-plus partnerships in both the innings of the second Test and provided Australia with a strong start on both the occasions.
McDonald feels that Khawaja has the flexibility to play in the middle-order, adding that all batters in the team must be able to perform anywhere in the order.
"The assumption is that Uzzie can only open as well. So I think that he does have the flexibility. And we like to think that all our batters have the flexibility to be able to perform anywhere in that order. So we've got a collective sort of group of batters there that as a series wears on, the opposition may create some different challenges for us. We're open to what it will look like for us moving forward," McDonald said.
Khawaja's previous outing in the middle-order
When Khawaja returned to the Australian Test team in early 2022, he came in to bat at No.5 in the Ashes after Travis Head had missed out on the match at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). So the veteran batter does have a little experience of playing in the middle-order.
McDonald remarked that while they hadn't given much thought about moving Khawaja down the batting order until now, they are open to use a slightly different batting model moving forward.
"He's been a stable piece up there, so we haven't discussed moving him previously. But we're open to what the batting model would look like moving forward should there be any moving parts. Whether Trav opens, whether he goes back to the middle, that will all play out. We're taking it Test by Test," McDonald added.