Usman Khawaja Picks his Opening Partner for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024

Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja has revealed his wish for Travis Head to be as the opener for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024. After the retirement of David Warner, Cricket Australia decided for Steve Smith to open along with Khawaja. However, he failed in his new role and scored only 171 runs in four matches at an average of 28.50.

Khawaja figured out that if the team has to maximize their potential to score runs, Smith should be given the 4th position to bat, as he has excelled at that place. Smith has scored 5,966 runs and given out a fantastic average of 61.50 in 67 Tests.

“He’ll just probably never say it. So I’ll say it for him. Opening is a very important spot (but) I still think we have the best Test player of my era in the side, Steve Smith, and his best spot has been number four. I feel like that’s his best spot. I feel like the best balance for our team is (Marnus) Labuschagne three, Smith four. For me, the number one consideration is ‘what’s best for the team?’. What order scores us the most runs? And if you look at how many runs we scored with David Warner in the team and Smith batting at four, we scored a lot of runs,” Khawaja said.

“With Smith opening, we’ve still won games, but I don’t think we’ve scored as many runs as we could’ve. And when things are in his favour, he’s almost unstoppable,” he added.

“At the end of the day, it’s a decision for the selectors. But if you have me opening, Labuschagne three, Smith four, I feel like Travis Head might be best suited. He’s obviously been very successful opening the batting in one-day cricket and, breaking it down, I’d probably lean towards him,” he concluded.

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