Sydney Test to be the final Test in Usman Khawaja’s career with the left-hander announcing his retirement post-Ashes.
Khawaja to retire from international cricket after Sydney Test, which is the final Test of the Ashes.
Following the last game of the current Ashes series in Sydney, Usman Khawaja has declared his retirement from international cricket.
Khawaja, 39, has 87 caps and 6206 runs, including 16 hundreds, going into his final Test match.
“I’ve been thinking about it, not wholly, but for a while,” Khawaja said with his family watching in the SCG press room. “Moving into this series, I kind of had an inkling in my head that this would be the last series.
“I talked to Rachel [Khawaja’s wife] about it a fair bit, and I knew this was a big chance. I didn’t leave the door fully shut, because I knew there was a chance I could play on. I know [coach] Andrew McDonald, even right till the very end, when I told him a few days ago, he was still thinking about how I could get to India [in 2027].
“I’m glad I get to leave on my own terms, with a little bit of dignity, and go out at the SCG where I love. But I think the start of the series was a pretty tough time. Then going into Adelaide and not being picked initially for the game, that was probably a sign for me to say, ‘all right, it’s time to move on’.”
Khawaja disclosed that he had talked to McDonald about retiring around the Boxing Day Test against India last summer and that he had contemplated retirement at various points over the previous two years.
“I said to him, if, at any stage right now, if you want me to retire, I will retire straight away. I have no issue. I’m not hanging on for myself,” Khawaja said. “That was the most annoying thing, because I felt people were coming at me, and I felt they were saying I was selfish for staying on. But I wasn’t staying on for myself.
“Andrew McDonald practically said, no, I want you to stay. We need you for Sri Lanka and the World Test Championship. I want you to stay on. And so I did.”
After retiring from international competition, Khawaja stated he would still play for the Brisbane Heat in the BBL. Later in the summer, he also intended to keep playing Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland.
It started and was renewed at the SCG, where Khawaja’s Test career would come to an end. In the last Test of the 2010–11 series, he made his debut against England. After a two-year hiatus from Test cricket, he was invited back to replace Travis Head, who had Covid, and went on to score double hundreds in the 2021–22 Ashes.
“Usman has made a huge contribution to Australian cricket both through his outstanding achievements as one of our most stylish and resilient batters since his Test debut 15 years ago, and off field, particularly through the Usman Khawaja Foundation,” Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg said. “On behalf of Australian Cricket I would like to thank and congratulate Usman for all he has achieved.