Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has offered a telling insight into his late-career mindset and revealed his biggest piece of advice for young players coming through.<\/p>\n
While he may be currently out of the national set-up, Khawaja explained why he was enjoying his cricket more than ever at this stage of his career.<\/p>\n
"It's more about enjoying the journey," he told Fox Cricket.<\/p>\n
"It's so hard when you're young because, I think, at the same time you kind of earn the right to enjoy the journey if you put in the hard work and time in the nets and a lot of effort… and most importantly you have fun.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"In the second half of your career you start enjoying it more because you know what to expect, you've sort of been through the experience."<\/p>\n
"I'm not going to lie cricket is a very hard game whether it is now or when I was young. It has never been an easy game.<\/p>\n
Khawaja's name has briefly been mentioned as Australia searches for a consistent opening pair at the Test level, but he says he has gotten used to blocking out the "whte noise".<\/p>\n
"I say that to a lot of the youngsters and new guys coming in, I try to instil that to gain that skill at a young age because the earlier you can develop that the easier it gets for you later on because it is very hard to block out that white noise," he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"Particularly at the top level it is the hardest thing to do.<\/p>\n
"Honestly I probably wasn't very good at it when I was younger. I read a lot of the press and let it affect me a lot. I stay in the moment now and try to be as mindful of where I am. Right now it is all about the BBL.<\/p>\n
"I've learned from it in the past and said it before, some things you can't control. I just control when I'm out there, what I can do for the team and I've learned that over a long time."<\/p>\n
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