Australian batter Usman Khawaja is reportedly set to address a press conference on Friday in Sydney, 48 hours before the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground starting Sunday. A Sydney Morning Herald report stated that the southpaw will speak to the media at 8:15 a.m. local time, amid speculation about his retirement.
Khawaja was picked in Australia’s squad for the series finale and has made scores of 82, 40, 29, and 0 in his last four Test innings. The left-hander has batted in the middle order since the third Test match at Adelaide, with Travis Head preferred to open the batting alongside Jake Weatherald by the management.
The pitch wore a green tinge three days before the Test match, with spinner Todd Murphy admitting that he was yet to take a closer look at the surface.
“I’ve only seen it from afar, and my eyes obviously aren’t amazing. It’s hard to pick out exactly what it’ll be, and we’re three days out. It looks like there’s a bit of grass on it … but no idea, I haven’t looked closely at it,” he said.
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke had hinted that the Sydney Test would be Khawaja’s farewell match for his country and hoped that the left-hander could score a hundred at the venue, where he made his debut in 2011.
“I think this will be Usman’s farewell Test match. I don’t think it’s a token selection; they obviously picked him for Melbourne, so if they’ve gone that way, you pick him for Sydney as well.”
“But I think he’ll retire after this Test match. Australia will win the series. Hopefully, he goes out with a big score. I’d love to see Uz make a hundred at the SCG and walk away on a high because not many people get that opportunity,” Clarke told Code Sports on Tuesday.
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Khawaja has played 87 Tests and scored 6206 runs at an average of 43.39 with 16 hundreds and a best score of 232.
