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Australia v Pakistan Test cricket: Usman Khawaja's case of mistaken identity

Chris Barrett

Usman Khawaja left Pakistan with his family before the age of five but nearly a quarter of a century later and almost six years since he made his Test debut for Australia not quite everyone knows who he is playing for at the Gabba this week.

"I was waiting downstairs and I needed the change room locker to be opened for us," the Australian No.3 batsman said on Tuesday after arriving at the ground. "And I was just waiting and the Queensland Cricket lady came down. She was like 'Oh, you need the locker rooms open?' I went 'yes please' and she started walking to the Pakistani change room. 

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"I was like, 'No, I'm that way, thank you'." 

The anecdote drew laughter when he shared it and it was told in good humour by Khawaja, the Queensland captain who now calls Brisbane home.

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The series against Pakistan pits the 29-year-old up against his country of birth for the first time in Test cricket and his heritage remains important to him and even more so to parents Tariq and Fozia, who emigrated from Islamabad and settled in Sydney in the early 1990s.

"It still is a very big part of me," Khawaja said. "Culture is very important, as is religion ... not as important as religion obviously. My parents are Australian but they're also very Pakistani. If I broke it down, the way I act and what I do, is very Australian. But when I talk to my parents I still at times try to speak Urdu here and there. It's not as good as them but they can understand what's going on. It is a big part of my life when I'm with my parents or around my parents but other than that it's usually quite normal.

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"I came around [the age of] four and a half. I've had glimpses of memories from before I left. I was born in Islamabad. So I have glimpses of memories of our old place and whatnot, but nothing too circumstantial. First four years of my life, so most of my childhood memories revolve around being in Australia being in Sydney."

There is also no dispute whatsoever about who his family will be supporting when the first Test starts on Thursday.

"My parents are truly Australian now. They don't support Pakistan at all," he said. "They haven't for a long time now. They were there for 30 years but now they just want me to do well and want Australia to win every single time no matter who we're playing. There is no allegiance conflict at all."

Khawaja enters this series in rich form, much like he was in last summer when he posted century after century. There have been three in his past three matches – a man-of-the-match winning 145 for Australia against South Africa in the third Test in Adelaide book-ended by two hundreds for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield. He is not taking it for granted, however, that the runs will keep coming.

"Obviously runs are flowing at the moment. I'm feeling really good," he said. "I'm not a big one on believing in form. In or out because in this game, everything changes every single game. The wickets change, your opposition changes, the ground changes, the balls seem like they react differently whether it's a red ball, a pink ball or a white ball, they all seem to react differently on different days on different wickets.  

"I know how quickly things can change. So every time I go out there I'm just trying to score as many runs as I can and do whatever I can to help the guys win a cricket game. It's always nice to come into another game with runs behind your belt because you do feel a little bit more relaxed but that's when you have to bring yourself back in, just reel it in, and make sure you tell yourself that there's still lots of runs to be had out there and don't get complacent because there's always times where you don't score as many runs as you like and it's always tough, so you probably have to be more hardened at these times than at any other time I reckon."

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