da cassino： Batsman edges closer to selection for the first Test, an unlikely prospect when he hobbled off at the World Cup
da 888casino： Daniel Brettig at Edgbaston28-Jul-2019Usman Khawaja has revealed he is one full running session away from being cleared to play in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston starting Thursday. Australia missed his presence in the top order during their World Cup semi-final loss to England, a tournament he felt “in my heart” Australia would win.While rain kept the majority of Australia’s optional training session indoors on Sunday, Khawaja bided his time in preparation for a final sprinting session, having slowly built his hamstring strength up since straining it in the final round robin game against South Africa at Old Trafford.He has been doing plenty of batting in the nets and in centre-wicket training at the end of Australia’s Southampton warm-up game, and now needs only to jump through the final hoop to line-up for the first Test.”Hammy’s good, very good. Doing all the rehab. I think it’s going really well at the moment,” Khawaja said on Sunday. “I’ve sort of been ticking them [fitness tests] off as I’ve been going. There’s running components I have to do, then strength hamstring stuff in the gym I’ve had to do and I’ve been doing them over the last three weeks, just ticking them off. I’m just about running at full speed now, did a session yesterday (Saturday) that was just about at full speed. So not too far off.”I’ve done most of the stuff. I’ll do some more running tomorrow (Monday). Tomorrow will probably be the last big one I do, probably the last level of running that I have to do. Highest level. If I do that then I think I’ll be available for selection.Along with his fitness sessions, Khawaja also enjoyed some batting time towards the end of the warm-up game, even though he felt the wicket wasn’t ideal. “I was fortunate I got to bat in the middle at the end anyway, after the game [in Southampton] was finished,” he said. “I really enjoyed that.”I didn’t enjoy it because the wicket had divots in it, it was tough work, it wasn’t a very nice wicket. But being out in the middle, seeing fielders around and not being in the nets all the time. I enjoyed it, batted for 30 mins and really enjoyed it. Still a little bit different but i think I got enough out of it in the end anyway.”After leaving the field against South Africa, Khawaja admitted to feeling somewhat helpless against England in the semi-final, on a day where the team led by Aaron Finch sorely missed his technical ad tactical acumen to deal with the ball zipping about on a fresh pitch. It’s a feeling Khawaja is hoping to avoid repeating during the Ashes, having played in England in 2013 but been missing from the team in 2015.”I was riding every ball. It’s hard to watch when you’re invested in the game,” Khawaja said. “When you’re in the game you feel like you can do something but from the other side of the fence – felt like my mum and dad would, like my wife. It’s a lot harder watching the game because you feel like you don’t have any control over it.Getty Images
“It’s disappointing because I honestly thought in my heart that the way we were playing, we were going to win the World Cup. But knockout stage of the tournament, that’s the beauty of the World Cup I guess – if you don’t perform at the right time, last few games is when you have to perform. So there was a lot of disappointment. To be sitting out too. But I didn’t start thinking about the Ashes until long after that semi-final was finished.”Australia’s coach Justin Langer had pointed to Khawaja’s injury as critical to the team’s elimination. The Queensland captain said he would take some confidence from the knowledge that his contributions had helped ease the Australians through to the pointy end of the World Cup with numerous calming innings in difficult circumstances.”Confidence is great because you feel like playing with freedom,” he said. “That’s the hardest thing as a batsman, playing with freedom. So that’s what I try to do, every time I go out there. It’s obviously a lot easier when you’re scoring runs, because you have a clear head. When you’re not scoring runs it’s a little bit harder. The thing is you have to be able to find yourself in that space more often than not, that clear head space. That’s what I try to do – T20, one-day or Test cricket.”The World Cup, the big thing was that SOS [Shaun Marsh] and I both got injured at the same time. SOS had already played a few games already in the World Cup, been playing one-day cricket for a long time and could have come in. It was just really bad timing that both of us got injured like a day out from each.”I guess that does throw the team off a little bit. but it’s never easy. Even for someone like Petey [Handscomb], who has played beautifully over the last year, it’s never easy coming in to a tournament in the last game, a semi. it’s always tough work, especially against a good side in tough conditions.”Reflecting on the travel, train, play treadmill of international cricket, Khawaja said that he had long given up on the search for winning routines because he did not find it helpful to lapse into superstations.”There’s no right or wrong,” he said. “If you don’t train – there’s been times when I haven’t hit a ball at all and scored plenty of runs and nobody said anything. And I’ve had times when I haven’t hit as many balls and haven’t scored runs – and people are like ‘ maybe you need to hit some more’.”Honestly there’s no magic formula. Cricket has so many different variables. All anyone ever really concentrates on as a batsman is if you’re scoring runs, as a bowler if you’re taking wickets, as a team if you’re winning games, but I haven’t found the magic formula.”That’s why I don’t have a routine per se, I don’t have a certain way I need to do things. I go with how I’m feeling. If i feel like I need a hit for a long time, I do, if I don’t then I don’t. I found when game day comes up, I’d go and have the routine and do everything right and it was almost turning into superstitions to some extent. I was like ‘this isn’t helping at all’. I just threw them all out. Itwas a long time ago, go with the flow.”
