‘Assumptions are he can only open’: New role would give Khawaja his Test lifeline

A new suggestion from Australia coach Andrew McDonald has reopened the door for Usman Khawaja to return to the Test side even as Travis Head and Jake Weatherald seem to have laid claim to the opening slots.

Khawaja, who would turn 39 on day two at Adelaide Oval, has been cleared to play again after suffering through surprise back issues in Perth and then missing the Gabba Test in Brisbane entirely.

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With Head having been such a stable part of the Australian batting order through the first two matches in the series — he’s arguably the reason the Aussies are heading into Adelaide 2–0 up, considering his legendary Perth heroics — there was never truly a question of disrupting him just to fit the 39-year-old veteran back into the starting XI next week.

That had started chins wagging that Khawaja may not get back into the Test side at all, with Josh Inglis likely better suited to coming in at five or six. Not so, though, says coach McDonald, who suggested Khawaja may take that spot.

“The assumption is that he can only open,” McDonald said.

“I think that he does have the flexibility. We like to think that all our batters have the flexibility to be able to perform anywhere in that order.

“We’ve got a collective group of batters there, that as the series wears on, the opposition may create some different challenges for us. So we’re open to what it will look like for us moving forward. And we’ve got three Test matches to go.”

A bit of a surprising option, but it’s not like Khawaja is any stranger to playing further down the order. Through much of his career, he was more likely to be selected at three or four in Test matches and Shield play; it’s only because David Warner retired that he’s taken over the top-order duties, alongside the fact Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne like three or four.

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Elsewhere in batting news, McDonald also confirmed that Mitch Marsh will remain available for the remainder of the Ashes series, even after he announced he’d be retiring from Sheffield Shield cricket at the end of the season. That being said, it’s very unlikely he’ll be called up considering how he’s fared in 2025 so far and how Australia’s batsmen have been.

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Beyond that, the batters should be quite similar for Adelaide, with Head, Weatherald, Smith, and Labuschagne all locked. Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon should also return on the bowling side after varying spells to start this Ashes series.