Queensland captain Usman Khawaja feels the ‘horses-for-courses’ selection policy hurts a player’s ability to develop his game. According to Khawaja, this style of picking playing XIs causes hindrances with player’s consistency.
The stylish left-hander was dumped for Tests in India and Bangladesh this winter despite having been in good form. He scored 50 plus scores in six consecutive Tests during the 2016-17 home season but was sidelined for four Tests in India regardless of his current form owing to the selection policies which focus more on choosing players with qualities of facing the spin-friendly conditions.
Last August, Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager of High Performance, had predicted this following a 0-3 Test series humbling in Sri Lanka.
“We’re most certainly going to end up with a horses-for-courses mentality,” Howard told AAP at the time.
“When we go to India the form in the subcontinent will be extremely important. That might mean some players play really well during the summer and don’t go to India.”
Khawaja could not find a place for Tests during the entirety of Australia’s Asian sojourn. In Sri Lanka last August, he was omitted after two Tests and later failed to find a place in the XI for the entire Border-Gavaskar series in February and March.
He got later recalled for the first Test in Bangladesh two months ago but was dropped again for the second match. The left-hander feels that uncertainty about his position played a role in the poor outcomes in Asia where he made a combined 57 runs at 9.5 in his past six innings.
“(It is) very hard to develop your game and play some consistent cricket if you’re not getting consistent opportunities overseas, which I haven’t been getting,” Khawaja told ABC Grandstand.
“It’s frustrating, but I’ve just got to focus on what’s in front of me. I’d love to win an Ashes series – I haven’t done that yet.
“(The selectors) never used to (change the team based on the country they were playing in) before, I’m not really sure why they do it now. It creates a lot of instability in the team I reckon, going in and out for everyone.”
Khawaja is likely to feature in the opening Test of the Ashes series on November 23 at his Queensland home ground, the Gabba – the same venue where he scored his maiden hundred back in 2015.
He is in good form recently as well, scoring 339 runs at 67.80 with a century and two fifties in the JLT One-Day Cup.
“I think the Australian team is pretty stable,” he added. “I’m confident the selectors already know what their make-up of the team is going to be for the first Test.
“There might be a few positions up for grabs depending on what happens in the Shield games, but I’m pretty confident they know what they’re expecting.”
Khawaja will also lead the Bulls in their Sheffield Shield opener from Thursday in a day-night clash against defending champions Victoria.