Australian opener, Usman Khawaja has recently stated that he wants to play his best cricket in English conditions in the Ashes.
Yesterday, Australia beat India by a massive margin of 209 runs in the WTC final at The Oval and have started their preparations for the series against England.
However, Khawaja has struggled to find form in English conditions where he has played 14 innings so far.
In these 14 innings, he has scored 249 runs at an average of 17.78. But, since his return to the Australian Test side last year, he has been averaging more than 60 in the format.
Recently, Khwaja has talked about his preparation for the Ashes and how he will be playing against the hosts.
Cricket is just that kind of game, it goes up and down, up and down. Hopefully, I don’t experience a down again, but the odds are I will. If you play long enough you always do. That’s just the crux of it.
Meanwhile, in the 2019 Ashes, Khawaja was in very poor form after which he was dropped from the side.
However, he made a solid comeback in the 2021-22 Ashes but once again, he was seen in poor form in the English conditions.
The Indian bowlers dismissed him for scores of 0 and 13 in the WTC final which shows that he’s struggling.
Khawaja feels like an outsider in the Australian team
Furthermore, Khawaja has also stated that he still feels like an outsider in the Australian team despite playing for many years now.
Luckily, my teammates were always respectful to me. But I always felt like an outsider. I don’t drink (alcohol). And I don’t buy guys drinks. But I’ve no issues with people drinking alcohol, either, it’s your life, do whatever you want to do. I respect that and they respect me.
Khawaja will now be facing English conditions yet again and he doesn’t have much time to spare as the first Ashes Test will begin on the 16th of June at Edgbaston.
Additionally, Australia has been able to retain the Ashes three times in a row now and will look to keep it with themselves for a record fourth time.
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