Australia openers on high as Khawaja turns down Labuschagne promotion

Australian opener Usman Khawaja brushed aside talks of Marnus Labuschagne coming up to open with him after David Warner's retirement from Test cricket.

The successful opening combination of Warner and Khawaja will feature in red-ball cricket for one last time during Australia's impending home series against Pakistan beginning on December 14. The former announced earlier this year that the third and final Test in Sydney will be his last dance in the longest format of the game for Australia.

A lot of questions have risen regarding who could take Warner's opening spot after his retirement. There is a school of thought suggesting that Marnus Labuschagne, who has made a name for himself batting at No. 3, could move up to accommodate all-rounder Cameron Green in the playing XI. Australia's head coach Andrew McDonald also dropped the idea recently during an interview. However, Khawaja feels that a specialist opener should replace Warner, pointing out the difficulty level of the role.

"Have you asked Marnus this? I think he would give you a really clear, 'hell no'. "Marnus has got opening-itis. I am pretty sure Davey Warner hurt his arm and sent Alex Carey out to open. I think that is a long shot. Opening is not easy. It's tough work. I can tell you that because I've batted at [No.]1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 for Australia. I'm telling you by far opening is the hardest and it's very hard to bring someone who hasn't opened," Khawaja was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"I'm positive if you put Marnus up there at opening he would do very well. But would he do as well opening as he does at No.3? I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to take the risk [given he's] averaging 55 [56.81] at three and Steve Smith averages 60 [58.61] in general. So you wouldn't want to mess around with it too much. Opening can be a very, very tough thing to do mentally more than physically so I'm always a bit shy of not letting people who haven't opened much in the past open the batting," he added.

The irony in this is that Khawaja himself started his Test career as a No. 3 batter and his first crack at opening came when Warner couldn't come out to bat as he had been off the field for too long, in a day-night Test, against South Africa in 2016. The Islamabad-born made instant impact as he scored a fine century. Khawaja had opened on 15 occasions in first-class cricket before that knock and hadn't scored a half-century. However, seven years later, he is one of the best openers in red-ball cricket in modern-day cricket.

I think all three of the guys [Matt Renshaw, Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft] that are in contention to open the batting deserve it: Usman Khawaja

Khawaja believes that one of the three specialist openers - Matt Renshaw, Marcus Harris, and Cameron Bancroft should accompany him at the top after Warner bids adieu to Test cricket. The southpaw refrained from picking his preferred opening partner from the trio and instead backed the selectors to take the call.

"It wouldn't matter anyway even if they asked me. I'd tell them to pick whoever you think is the best. I'm not willing to talk about it, to be honest. I think so many things go into it. I'm not privy to watching all these guys and all their batting. To be honest, even if I did think one was better than the other it's so minuscule that it probably doesn't matter. I think all three of the guys that are in contention to open the batting deserve it. For me, it's quite easy to just sit back and say pick whoever you want," Labuschagne concluded.

The first Test between Australia and Pakistan gets underway on Thursday, December 14 in Perth.