It's a choice, it's my personal choice: Usman Khawaja

Usman Khawaja says he has the full support of Australia’s coaching and fitness staff as he juggles playing and training on this Qantas Tour of the West Indies with observing the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan.

“They don’t force me to do anything,” he says. “It’s a choice, it’s my personal choice. They know that at the end of the day I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise the team in any way.

“And what I’m doing now, I’ve said to them before that when I fast I make sure I do everything as well as I can. And if I’m not doing it as well as I can, I will stop doing it and catch it up later on, which is always an option. So they’ve been really good. I’ve been doing it for the past 10 years playing cricket. So they’ve been really good. I’ve been doing it for the past 10 years playing cricket.

“Sometimes people forget that I’m doing it because I don’t like to talk about it. I think that might have happened last week when we were doing that big fielding session. But they’re quite understanding about it now since I’ve been doing it for so long, so it’s been good.”

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The 29-year-old, whose 98 runs knock went in a losing cause against West Indies earlier this week, admitted that his unwillingness to make a huge fuss of it sometimes means not everyone is aware.

“Sometimes people forget that I’m doing it because I don’t like to talk about it. I think that might have happened last week when we were doing that big fielding session,” he added.”But they’re quite understanding about it now since I’ve been doing it for so long, so it’s been good.”

He admits that playing and training during fast is very difficult.

“I’ve done half the days so far. I did it one training day last week and I was absolutely buggered,” he said with a smile.

“It’s been alright. It’s something that I really enjoy doing, but if it’s affecting my cricket or my training in too much of a negative way then I probably won’t do it. It just depends on the situation.