Australia batsman Usman Khawaja is extremely disappointed about not being selected for the ongoing ODI series in England but believes the door remains open for him.
Australia went into the England tour with a new-look side in the absence of premier batsmen Steve Smith, David Warner and the fast bowling trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. However, 31-year-old Khawaja failed to find a place in the squad despite being the third-highest run scorer in domestic one-day cricket over the past four seasons.
“I was extremely disappointed, in all honesty,” Khawja told radio station RSN.
“I’ve had a lot of chats to the selectors and a couple with JL (coach Justin Langer) about it. I was a bit disappointed but some things you can’t control.
“Hopefully I’ll get a chance over the next year. I scored a lot of runs in one-day cricket for the last five or six years, especially in domestic cricket.
“Even when I’ve been away and played in a couple of (Australia A) tours. I’m not sure there’s a lot more I can do other than just keep trying to score runs and hopefully I get a chance.
“That’s part of cricket, selections. You’ve got to figure out a way to move past and try to score runs.”
Khawaja has played 18 ODIs and is confident of adding to that tally.
“I just assumed that they didn’t want me in the team because they just didn’t want me in the team – there’s not much other than that,” he said.
“My record in one-day cricket is better than my red-ball cricket, funnily enough. Sometimes things just don’t align. “But I’ve had some really good chats with JL in all honesty and he’s been really clear about everything.
“Hopefully if I put my head down, keep training hard and doing all the right things, at some stage if there’s an opportunity, I’m still in line. Talking to (Langer), I think the door is still (open), I’ve just got to put my head down and hopefully an opportunity presents itself.”
