Axe falls again on homebody Usman

AUSTRALIA faces a big task to rebuild dumped batsman Usman Khawaja’s confidence after a plan to give him backto-back Test matches evaporated in the Chittagong dust.

Khawaja has been almost guaranteed his No.3 spot back for the Ashes, but the riddle of how to unlock his talents overseas is no closer to being solved.

There is doubt over whether he can play a Test in the subcontinent again after his latest stint in the baggy green lasted only one match. The 30-year-old was yesterday axed for the sixth time in his enigmatic 24-Test career — the third consecutive Asian series in the space of 12 months where he has failed to convince selectors of his worth.

It is almost unheard of for a batsman averaging 45 in Test cricket to be so regularly and so ruthlessly stranded in noman’s land, but after such a devastating loss in Dhaka, Khawaja had made himself a sitting duck with a horror outing in the first Test.

National selector Trevor Hohns said the call to drop Khawaja to accommodate Hilton Cartwright was a “warranted” horses-for-courses decision and had no wider-reaching ramifications other than the balance of a spin-heavy XI for a tricky series-saving scenario in Chittagong.

Cartwright has now come from the clouds to be in the box seat to be Australia’s No.6 for the Ashes.

Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade survived for Chittagong, but is on his last chance and needs runs, while Glenn Maxwell is also on the chopping block unless he can fire with a big score.