Khawaja puts off spin dilemmas

Usman Khawaja is putting off the awkward questions raised by his horrid Sri Lanka tour in order to shore up his place in Australian cricket on home soil – starting with the Matador Cup next month.The dilemma faced by Australia’s Test cricketers, coaches and selectors this summer was summed up by how Khawaja stated he did not wish to dwell on failings against spin in Asia lest it cloud his preparations for a season in which South Africa and Pakistan loom as strong opponents on faster surfaces.Having lost his Test spot as a result of an unsettling pattern of dismissals to finger spin in Pallekele and Galle, Khawaja must now start the season with runs if he is to resume the No. 3 spot from which he was so prolific last summer. The challenges to be posed by India will have to wait until the new year – if the selectors deem him worthy of the task.”I will look at that but…I want to concentrate on this summer in Australia ahead,” Khawaja said in Sydney while marking the 10th anniversary of the Basil Sellars scholarship for young cricketers. “There is no point looking at India if I don’t score any runs in the summer here and if we don’t win games against the current opposition we’ve got coming. If that bridge comes or when it comes, I’ll look at it.”I’ve already sort of assessed Sri Lanka, I’m sure all of us have. We have as a group. But us moving forward we need to win at home first. We’re playing against two quality attacks. They’re very good teams so first and foremost we need to do well there and once we can tick those boxes off we can start looking at India again. I’m sure everyone will have a think about it over the summer.”Like other members of the tour party, Khawaja looked most ruefully at the first Test, when a productive day one in the field was squandered by a poor first innings. Kusal Mendis then made the tourists pay with an innings out of the box, and Khawaja and others were soon floundering under scoreboard and series pressure.”As a whole, we probably just didn’t adapt to the wickets quickly enough,” Khawaja said. “I honestly think we should have won that first Test match. If it wasn’t for the little fella, the youngster Mendis playing an absolutely unbelievable innings and getting that hundred … that sort of took the game away from us.”I firmly believe that if we won that first Test everything would have been a lot different. We obviously didn’t, then Galle happened, and Sri Lanka just outplayed us.”Khawaja’s return was a measly 55 runs in the first two Tests, and he looked increasingly troubled against spin. His nadir arrived in the second innings at Galle, when he courteously allowed Dilruwan Perera to skid a ball into off stump from around the wicket. The selectors’ axe fell, undoing much of his progress the previous season. A new bat sponsor, Kookaburra, will look on nervously for what happens next.”It was tough to not play that last Test match,” Khawaja said. “It’s never easy being dropped, no matter what the circumstances are. But there’s so much cricket still to come. I don’t feel like I’ve lost touch or I’m out of it.”Hopefully for me right now it’s just about going back to Matador Cup and doing well for Queensland. Hopefully we can win a trophy, and then hopefully I can be there for the first Test in Perth.”There was caginess from Khawaja about the conversations he had with the tour selectors Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann, who have flagged a need to rethink the composition of the team for India next year but also denied Sri Lankan failures would count against selection at home. A hundred for Shaun Marsh on his recall in Colombo complicated matters.”I don’t particularly want to chat about it because it was between myself and the selectors and the coach,” Khawaja said. “I’m sure if they want to say something, they can. It didn’t seem like it was the end of the world.”I can understand where they were coming from, even though it was disappointing and I didn’t fully agree with it. At the end of the day it’s out of your hands. You’ve just got to roll with the punches and hopefully when you get another chance you score runs.”