Usman Khawaja, the Australia opener, said he was more more focussed on winning games for his country than sealing a spot in the squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019.
“I’m not looking at my World Cup chances … I worked really hard to get back into the one-day team and I’m just enjoying the ride,” Khawaja said on Sunday, 3 March. “[Just] doing my best to win cricket games. That’s the most important thing. That’s all I can really focus on.”
After a gap of two years, Khawaja made his return to one-day international cricket in January, against India in a three-match series at home which the visitors won 2-1.
In Hyderabad on Saturday, he scored a half-century in the first ODI of the corresponding series in India. That made it two half-centuries in four ODIs for Khawaja – he averages 41 in ODIs this year – and in the absence of the suspended David Warner and Steve Smith, he’s one of the more senior batsmen in the side.
It seems Khawaja, who made his ODI debut in 2013, is finally making an impression in white-ball cricket, but the probable return of Warner and Smith, who return this month, might push him out of the XI.
Despite that, Khawaja said he would welcome them “with open arms’.
“They’re world-class players and they’ve been amazing for the one-day team for Australia for a long time,” he said. “I’m sure when they do come back, they’ll be welcomed with open arms”.
As much as he is enjoying his white-ball form, he said there were plenty of challenges. “It’s all about executing your skill, do it better for longer,” he said. “The best players do that – there are always risks to be taken in one-day cricket, as there are in T20 cricket.
“You probably don’t realise it at the time, if the ball goes for four you don’t realise what kind of risk it was, and if you get out to it then people see the risk there. As a batsman, you’re always juggling that in any short-form cricket. The best players do it better.”
