Khawaja to retire after fifth Ashes Test

Usman Khawaja, an Australian batsman, will miss his fifth Ashes Test match against England in Sydney this week.

The 39-year-old will play his 88th and final Test on the field where he made his debut against the same opponents in January 2011 (in front of the same crowd).

When Ricky Ponting was replaced by Khawaja at the conclusion of England’s 3-1 series win, he became the first Muslim to play for Australia.

The left-hander has scored 16 hundreds on 6 of his 206 test runs on an average of 43.39.

Additionally, he was a member of Australia’s 2023 World Test Team.

Sunday (23:30 GMT, Saturday) will be the SCG’s final test.

Khawaja is one of the two remaining Australian team members who lost to England in their most recent series victory in this country in 2010-11 along with Steve Smith.

In his final Test, he needs 30 runs to surpass Mike Hussey and surpass the great Donald Bradman in 13th place on Australia’s all-time run-scorers list.

Khawaja won his final of his 40 one-day international matches in 2019 by posting a 42-run total of 1, 554 runs. He scored 241 runs in a total of 26.77 against nine T20 internationals.

Khawaja will end his professional career with New South Wales in 2008 by returning to the ground where he was born.

He frequently made and broke up the Australia Test team, but in the 2021 and 2022 Ashes, he found a place at the top of the order.

His position has been questioned in this series, though, after he suffered back spasms that prevented him from opening in the first Test.

In the second innings, Travis Head replaced Khawaja and set up an eight-wicket victory for Australia with a swashbuckling century.

After the second Test, Khawaja’s back issue prevented her from being selected for the third match, but Steve Smith’s illness caused her to miss the following match.

In Adelaide, he won the fourth Test while posting 82 and 40. The series is 3-1 in Australia.