Khawaja began playing cricket at a young age with the Valley District Cricket Team in Brisbane, and he qualified for the 2006 Under-19 World Cup. He made his first-class debut for New South Wales two years back.
Due to Ricky Ponting’s injury, Usman Khawaja was given the opportunity to play for the national team in 2011. He made his One-Day International debut against Sri Lanka in 2013, but was dropped after three games. In the 2015-16 season, he had a good comeback and made his T20I debut against India. He went on to become a regular in the Test side after that, and has since scored some crucial runs.
Career
Domestic Career
Khawaja’s outstanding success in the Australian Under-19 Championship earned him a spot in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup for Australia. For the New South Wales Blues, he made his first-class debut in 2008. He represented Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League in 2011 and has been a core member of the squad ever since.
In the same year, he signed a contract to play domestic cricket for Derbyshire in England. Lancashire signed him for both formats in 2014. He also plays club cricket for Brisbane’s Valley District Club. He was elected captain of the Queensland cricket team the following year.
International Career
On January 11, 2013, Khawaja made his One-Day International debut against the Sri Lankan cricket team. Due to his poor showing in the first few games, he was cut from the roster. In the limited-overs tour of India in 2019, Khawaja revealed his class, and he also played well against Pakistan in the following series. This helped him win a place in the 2019 Cricket World Cup, but he was forced to withdraw due to a hamstring injury sustained in one of the group-stage matches.
In the fifth match of the 2010-11 Ashes series, Khawaja made his Test debut. He became the first Muslim and the first Pakistani-born Australian to play Test cricket for Australia as a result of this. Following a lack of discipline, he and a few other teammates were suspended in 2013. In the 2013 Ashes series, he made his comeback to Test cricket. He made his first Test century against New Zealand in 2015.
In the same year, he made headlines by becoming the first batsman to score a century in a Day-Night Test match on home soil. He was chosen for the Ashes series in England in 2019. He was dropped for the fourth Ashes Test after failing to score a half-century in the first three matches.
On January 31, 2016, Khawaja made his Twenty20 International debut for Australia against India. He was picked for the 2016 T20 Cricket World Cup, and against Bangladesh, he scored his first and only T20I half-century. Following that, he struggled in the shortest format of the game and hasn’t appeared in a T20I since September 2016.
Family
When Usman Khawaja was five years old, his father, Tariq Khawaja, moved to Australia with his wife, Fozia Tariq. Nauman and Arsalan Khawaja are his two children.