Sad end looms for Usman Khawaja as Australia urged to accept Ashes ‘gift’ after Travis Head century

Usman Khawaja’s international career is in real danger of a sad and sudden end after back spasms prevented the soon-to-be 39-year-old from firing a shot in the first Ashes Test, with Travis Head gleefully taking the reins.

Khawaja missed out on opening the batting on day one in Perth after being off the field for too long and he was then sidelined for Australia’s second innings with more issues.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Australia claim historic win over England in first Ashes Test.

Head moved up from No.5 to open and destroyed England with 123 from just 83 balls — just what the doctor ordered in the match, and potentially the future.

Australia have cycled through six different openers since David Warner retired in January 2024, masking Khawaja’s relative struggles with several low scores in that time.

Head’s match-winning knock ensured Khawaja no longer has anywhere to hide.

“At lunchtime when England had that 100-run lead, one wicket down, Australia had a list of problems this long,” veteran journalist Peter Lalor said on Channel 7.

“It’s been gifted an answer to one of these. Will it accept that gift? I think it should.”

Former Aussie international Aaron Finch, like Head a middle-order batsman who went on to open, agreed.

“You have to seriously consider it, 100 per cent,” he said.

“(Before the innings) I was a little bit in the direction of maybe (choosing) somebody else, Alex Carey, because of the damage that Travis Head can do (later in the innings) particularly if the ball gets a bit soft and the wicket flattens out a little bit.

“It’s just an opportunity that you probably have to take now.”

Steve Smith joked in the post-match presentations that there was talk of sending Nathan Lyon in alongside debutant Jake Weatherald to soak up the early overs.

But Head showed a willingness to protect Weatherald, his former state teammate, and open the batting in a home Test for the first time.

“It’s been brewing for a bit,” Head said after previously doing so in Asia and white-ball cricket.

“Played a lot of cricket with Jake (for South Australia), so I was pretty keen to take some pressure off him.

“I just felt like the moment was right. I was pretty bullish around the fact that I felt like I could do it.

“I’m always putting my hand up. I’m not going really aggressive at it, but I put my hand up.

“If the team requires it, I’m more than happy to do it and keep the option there.”

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Much has been made of Khawaja’s golfing prior to the first Test, with Cricket Australia denying it had anything to do with his back problems.

But Head’s revelation of a rare change-up served to spotlight his veteran teammate’s mistake.

“(One Shield game was) probably not the prep I would’ve liked going into the Test but the process was right, the method was right,” he told Channel 7.

“I did a lot of training. I trained all four days here, which is unheard of for me. Just found a little bit of rhythm.

“I’m never going to doubt my own ability. But I think when you have a big gap in Test cricket (between matches), you’re lying in bed a couple of nights before like can I do it, can you still produce it, can you as a cricketer each year keep rolling out big scores in big moment?

“And it’s not going to get much bigger than this. Your mind just takes you to am I good enough to still do it against the absolute best? Pleased to slap it around a bit today and get a score and be 1-0 up.”

Reluctant to discuss whether Head could make a permanent move to the top, Smith conceded Khawaja was “not moving particularly well” on Saturday night.

“Unfortunately, he just pulled up a bit lame early on in the game, and that happens when your back goes,” the stand-in skipper said.

“I’ve been there myself when your back seizes up, and it’s not a nice place to be.”

The second Test in Brisbane begins in 11 days, with a decision around Head and Khawaja added to fitness tests for Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

Beau Webster, dropped from side for the first Test, would appear the frontrunner to replace Head in the middle order but Josh Inglis could also come into calculations.

The white-ball regular scored a century on his Test debut against Sri Lanka earlier this year but made a duck in his second match and just five and 12 in his only appearance against the West Indies in June.