WTC Final: Khawaja, Not Warner, The Real Threat

IMAGE: Australian opener Usman Khawaja is the man behind his team's march into the WTC final. Photograph: BCCI

Usman Khawaja, the first player from the sub-continent to don the Baggy Green, is ready to leave his legacy after finally 'fitting in'.

Khawaja, who made his Test debut in an 2011 Ashes Test, did not really set the stage on fire. He had a good season in 2015, but his inconsistent form saw him in and out of the team. He was finally dropped for the 2019 Ashes series.

The blow was hard, but Khawaja was not one to back down. He was kept out of Test cricket for two years, but he kept piling on the runs for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield, Australia's domestic cricket tournament.

Recalled for the home Ashes series against England in 2021, Khwaja had an almost immediate impact by scoring centuries in both innings at the SCG.

With a massive 1,608 runs in 16 Tests in the WTC 2021-2023 cycle, Khawaja was the major reason Australia qualified for the WTC final.

He scored those runs at an average of 69.91. In 28 innings, the 36 year old scored six tons and seven half-centuries, with the best score of 195*.

In the four-match Test tour of India earlier this year, Khawaja scored over 300 runs, with 180 being his best.

'I definitely get to be myself more now,' Khawaja told the ICC. 'Two things. One, I don't give a crap because I am older and I am at the backend of my career so I can do what I want.'

'Two, these boys that I am playing with are guys that I grew up playing with. I grew up playing with a lot of them, playing for New South Wales.

'Starcy (Mitchell Starc), (Pat) Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood, (Steve) Smith and (David) Warner -- all of these guys I grew up playing with so it makes it a lot easier to be myself.

'Even when I came into Australian cricket I was the young fella from a sub-continent background coming into a very white Australian cricket team.

'I found it very tough to fit into the mould. And there was a mould for Australian cricket at that time and that mould is not really there anymore.'

With 14 centuries in 60 Tests, Khawaja wants to contribute some more hundreds before hanging up his boots.

"Hopefully, slowly, I can be the first of many Usman Khawajas -- both male and female -- who come into the system who aren't born in Australia and traditionally aren't white Anglo Saxons,' he said.

'That is the reason I feel most comfortable now. One because I am a little older and comfortable with myself, but two also the guys in the team and around me make me feel more comfortable than I have ever been.'