USMAN ON THE MEND AND CHASING A RETURN
USMAN Khawaja is making strong progress in his bid to play the first Test of the home summer but is staying out of the off-field politics that has sabotaged the Australian game.
Khawaja, 10kg lighter than he was on the South Africa tour in March, is making a steady recovery from knee surgery after breaking down in the second Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last month.
“I ran at 100 per cent yesterday on the treadmill and will hopefully run outside tomorrow,” he said.
“In an ideal world I’d play a Shield game before the first Test (against India in Adelaide from December 6). That is the target but there is still three weeks until then.’’
Khawaja concedes Australian cricket is being buffeted by the winds of change that have seen a string of resignations and sackings including highperformance boss Pat Howard.
“I got along with Pat. It is never a nice thing to see someone lose their job no matter who it is,” he said. “It is a tough time for Australian cricket in some respects and hopefully things will smooth out sooner or later.
“There is obviously a lot of change going on in Australian cricket. As players we try to stay out of it ... to be honest all I care about is the team.
“I am not a part of that other stuff so it is hard for me to comment what’s going on.’’
Khawaja, reasserted himself as a Test player with a career-defining century against Pakistan and is now craving to revive his 50-over international career before the World Cup in England next year.