Khawaja the bright spark on a dull day
On a rain-truncated first day at the SCG, it was a stop-start innings from Test debutant Usman Khawaja that made the headines in Australia
Liam Brickhill
25-Feb-2013
On a rain-truncated first day at the SCG, it was a stop-start innings from Test debutant Usman Khawaja that made the headines in Australia. Khawaja has what it takes to be his team's next No. 3, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald, and displayed every necessary quality - barring longevity - in his debut innings.
No sooner had he taken guard than his innings was under way. Spell-bound, many batsmen record ducks in their first Test innings. Khawaja's worries lasted a single ball. All morning he had watched the openers battling to survive as the ball moved about. Now he found his opening salvo ball arriving on his pads and politely tucked it away for two runs.
In The Australian Malcolm Conn asks what Khawaja's timely knock might mean for Ricky Ponting's batting position, and the line-up in general.
What to do with the rest of the batting order? Clarke stays at number four even though he's been a failure in that position, averaging just 20, and 19 this series. There is no one else. Given Mike Hussey's revival this summer he stays and Ponting could slot in at number six, pushing Steve Smith down the order or out of the side. Much will depend on whether Australia is prepared to play Smith as its front-line spinner. The other debutant, left-arm tweaker Michael Beer, could have a fair say in that later in the match if the weather dries out and Australia can give him a reasonable last innings total to bowl at.
Derek Pringle focusses on Michael Clarke's decision to bat first in The Telegraph, and suggested that England's bowling attack has progressed to the point where it gets results even when under par.
You certainly tend to get castigated more if things go awry after putting teams in, something Ponting knows only too well after Edgbaston 2005, the last time he inserted a team. But Pakistan dismissed Australia here last year for 127, after the home side batted first, so the dangers of taking first hit under heavy cloud at the SCG were well known.
Liam Brickhill is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town