Adelaide [Australia], October 22 : Australian batter Matt Renshaw, who made his ODI debut against India at Perth on Sunday, is drawing some inspiration from his Queensland opening partner Usman Khawaja to work his way towards a Test comeback ahead of the home Ashes series.
Renshaw, who made his international debut in 2016, has played 14 Tests and scored 645 runs at an average of 29.31, with a century and three fifties. The batter said that "he wants to be there" for the first home Ashes at Perth from November 21 onwards, and Khawaja's renaissance in the 2020s has assured him that he can still script a fine comeback of his own.
Having last played a Test in 2023 during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour to Australia, Renshaw was around the team in reserves for the UK tour in 2023 and the 2024 NZ tour, but last summer against India saw Nathan McSweeney and Sam Konstas playing over him at home.
During the last Shield season, Renshaw had a disappointing outing, managing just 496 runs in 10 matches and 18 innings at an average of 29.17, with two centuries and a fifty and a best score of 125*. This season, the 29-year-old is back in the selection mix and recently scored 128 against Tasmania in his first Shield match of the season.
Speaking ahead of the Adelaide ODI, Renshaw revealed his closeness to Khawaja, saying, as quoted by cricket.com.au, "I am really close with 'Uzzy' (Khawaja). He sort of thought his Test journey was over, and look at him now. I am trying to try to talk to him about how he has gone about it because it is just amazing."
Khawaja found himself out of the mix for three years after a poor Ashes series away from home in 2019 and returned to the team in 2022 and since then, has added over 3,000 runs and eight centuries to his fine Test resume, which consists of 6,053 runs in 84 Tests with 16 centuries at an average of 43.86.
However, with just one century in 13 Test innings this season and a failure during the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, Khawaja, who will turn 39 this year, is facing his share of struggles and looking at the home Ashes as a potential bow-out from international cricket.
Other players in the selection mix are premier batter Marnus Labuschagne, who responded well to benching in the Caribbean during the three-match Test series in June and July, scoring four centuries in six innings for Queensland across one-day and multi-day formats.
Sam Konstas, 20, who had an explosive start to his career by ramping up Indian superstar Jasprit Bumrah on his way to a fine half-century during the Boxing Day Test last year, has blown hot and cold in domestic and 'A' team cricket following a horrible WI tour this year, scoring just 50 in three matches.
Also, seasoned campaigner Jake Weatherald, the last year's top-run-getter in Shield with 906 runs at an average of around 50 is also in contention, starting off strongly in this season with successive fifties in round one of Shield cricket and a 94 against Western Australia.
However, Renshaw is likely not aware of runs being scored by his competition, saying that keeping his eyes away from their scoreboards has helped him free his mind.
"There have been times in my career where I would come off after a Shield game, and obviously all the Shield games are on at the same time, and (I would be) looking at the scorecards, looking at different names and seeing how they went," Renshaw explained.
"But in the first Shield game this season, I could not tell you who scored runs in other games. I was just trying to focus on our own game and win for Queensland.
"I think that is a better place for me to be; otherwise, I just get too caught up in other people and not worry about myself. Knowing that someone else is scoring runs does not matter to how I am going to go out and play my game of cricket," he continued.
Speaking of the home Ashes starting from November 21 onwards at Perth, Renshaw said, "I want to be there. It would be remiss of me not to say that.
"The cricket I have played over the last six months, since I have had a few conversations with important people to me about my batting, has been good. I do not think I would be in the one-day international team without that."
"But I try and stay away from it as much as possible. I am just worrying about myself, if someone else does get the opportunity to open in the Ashes, I know that they are going to be good enough."
"I know Australian cricket is strong enough that whoever gets that chance to open in that first Test is going to have done enough and be good enough to do that for Australia. Opening is a hard job in red-ball cricket specifically, and we all know how hard it is. All the openers respect each other, and if someone else gets picked, then they deserve it," he concluded.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
