Test Mortem: Selectors face Warner 2.0 dilemma with Khawaja, Moody wants both openers gone, big four rotation needed

Australia’s notoriously gun-shy selectors are in a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation of their own doing with Usman Khawaja struggling for runs in the twilight of his career.

In a repeat of the David Warner situation of a couple of years ago, the left-handed opener is in danger of losing his spot as he heads into what he has announced as his farewell summer. 

Khawaja, who turns 39 in December, is aiming to bid farewell to international cricket at the SCG Test in the New Year’s Test.

In his past four Tests he has not passed 50 in eight innings and managed just 149 runs at 21.28.

Since he opened the 2023 Ashes series with a majestic 141 to earn player of the match honours at Edgbaston, he has averaged 33.55 in 20 Tests with that number inflated by his 232 on a sedate Galle wicket earlier this year.

Khawaja has looked a touch slow with his footwork against high-quality pace with Jasprit Bumrah, Kagiso Rabada and now the Windies trio of Jayden Seales, Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph routinely getting the new ball past his defences.

He has been trapped in front cheaply three times in a row and looks extremely tentative, feeling for the ball outside off stump only to be rapped on the pads when the right-armers produce swing.

Khawaja’s situation has been exacerbated by his half his age opening partner Sam Konstas cobbling together just 28 runs in four digs on Caribbean soil since his recall.

Australia captain Pat Cummins is backing Konstas to find his feet soon with only one more Test before the home Ashes series this summer kicks off in Perth on November 21 but former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody is not so sure.

Moody, who has coached Sri Lanka, Western Australia and in the IPL, posted on social media during the second Test that “it’s not unreasonable to think that Australia could have two new openers for the 1st Ashes Test.

Usman Khawaja. (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images for Cricket Australia)

“Harris, Patterson & Bancroft with over a decade of work in domestic cricket are ready and waiting … Could do worse than getting them to the Caribbean for the 3rd Test!”

Cummins, in the post-match media conference after the series-clinching 133-run second Test win in Grenada, had some reassuring advice for Konstas. 

“For anyone who’s starting out their Test career, you’re picked for a reason. You at your best, we know is good enough. It’s just about concentrating on what makes you a really good player. It might be where you score, what tempo you operate at your best.

“Don’t get too caught up in it … every innings feels like the biggest thing in the world.

“The stat is that even the best batters in the world don’t hit their average three out of four times, so you’re going to fail more often than you’re going to succeed. 

“As long as you’re a quick learner, as long as you’re moving well and giving yourself the best chance, keep doubling down on that and judge yourself after a series or so, not innings by innings.”

Plan of attack needed for bowlers

They say that breaking up is hard to do, particularly when you have four worldies in your bowling attack who don’t want to give up the chance to wear the baggy green cap.

But it’s not the selection panel’s job to acquiesce to the players’ wishes – their job is to make sure Australia not only wins their next Test but can remain strong into the future.

That won’t happen if Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon line up in every Test they are physically capable of playing in and squeeze out every last drop of their careers before retiring within a short timeframe of each other.

Along with Pat Cummins, they have been, are and can still be a world-class bowling unit, as they have shown yet again in the Caribbean. 

Saturday’s Third Test in Jamaica shapes as the ideal opportunity to get some much-needed game time into an inexperienced option although it won’t be Starc, given that he is due to play his 100th match. 

Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

If the selectors stand behind the old “you can’t cheapen the value of the baggy green” cliche, that is missing the point.

Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon cannot play forever and while telling them to take a Test off may not be what they want, it is what’s best for the team in the long term.

Brendan Doggett was included in this touring squad and the Queensland seamer would have been well worth a trundle in Jamaica after strong form in recent years in the Sheffield Shield ranks. 

At 31, he is no spring chicken himself but now if the Aussies want to give a back-up pace bowler a run, their options are Doggett’s replacement, uncapped 33-year-old Sean Abbott and Scott Boland, who recently celebrated his 36th birthday. 

If the pitch looks like it will be favourable to spin, Matt Kuhnemann is also in the Caribbean to potentially add to his promising start to his Test career which has yielded 25 wickets in just five matches.

Beau knows he belongs now

Beau Webster is mounting a strong case to remain in the Test XI even when Cameron Green is able to bowl again.

He is still yet to make a big score but he’s passed 50 in four of his 10 innings as well as an unbeaten 39 to steer the Aussies home on debut in a low-scoring match in Sydney, often coming in after the top order has collapsed, to average 40.77 with the bat.

Throw in his seven wickets from just 55.1 overs with his handy medium-pacers and wide wing span to snaffle anything that comes anywhere near him in the field and the 31-year-old Tasmanian is well and truly earning his keep.

His 60 on a tricky Grenada deck after 63 doing the hard yards in the second innings at Barbados were worth their weight in Caribbean gold, spending roughly four hours at the crease each team after higher credentialled batters had not lasted long.