The returning Usman Khawaja performed splendidly in Sydney as he battered the English bowling attack with a century in each innings to get Australia to an enormous total each time.
The Australian side backed him up with a great performance, however failed to get their fourth straight win in a row in this series as England managed to claw their way to a draw. Now, with the last test almost here, the teams are heading to Hobart as they prepare for a day night pink ball test to end this series.
Australia have announced their squads for the last match with only one major change. Marcus Harris has been dropped to retain Usman Khawaja as an opener. This means alongside Warner, Khawaja will open the batting with Head dropping down to the middle order probably.
“I think he knew was it was coming,” Cummins said on Thursday. “The message to Harry is we think he is going really well. It’s really tough on him. It’s not too often someone comes in and hits two hundreds in the same game. But I thought Marcus has been really good I think he’s been growing with each game he was a huge part in how we won that MCG Test with a crucial innings.”
“So he’s certainly part of the future. We’ll keep investing in him. I think he’s been going really well.”
“No, absolutely not,” Cummins said. “I think Uzzy and Davey have really earned that spot to open the batting but the reality is they’re both 35 years old. So whilst that doesn’t mean anything in the short, short term there will be a day where we need to find some other openers. Marcus is still absolutely got a huge future with us. He’ll be around the squad. I think there might even be an Australia A tour go overseas in the off-season. Of course, there’s heaps of Shield cricket and county cricket as well so for sure this is probably more a case of someone demanding a spot as opposed to Marcus losing his spot.”