Injured Usman Khawaja to miss the next two Test matches

Usman Khawaja, the Pakistani-born Australian batsmen is set to at least miss the Day-Night Adelaide Test against New Zealand and the first Test against the West Indies at Hobart due to a left hamstring injury he picked up while chasing a ball on the second evening of the second test against New Zealand in WACA.

“Usman suffered a left hamstring injury in the field yesterday afternoon and underwent scans in Perth this morning,” “The scans have indicated a moderate hamstring muscle strain, which means it is likely he will be unavailable for the next two Test matches in Adelaide and Hobart,” the team physio David Beakley said.

The injury came at a wrong time for the batsman as he had just posted two centuries in two matches and was in the verge of establishing himself in the Australian side. He missed the last summer as well due to a knee injury and searching for the No.3 berth will again be a problem for Cricket Australia.

West Australians uncapped Cameron Bancroft and Michael Klinger and the nifty Shaun Marsh are in line to replace Khawaja in the squad for these two Tests.

Shaun Marsh has averaged 33.1 in 15 Tests, the last one at Nottingham during the Ashes when he made 0 and 2. Cameron Bancroft has played 26 first-class matches averaging 37.63.Klinger, who’s on the wrong side of 35, averages around 40 in 157 first class matches he has represented Western Australia.

Hopefully for the Australians, he’ll come back strong for the Boxing Day test and the replacement for him will perform well against New Zealand in the next Test.