{"id":351644,"date":"2023-12-05T00:03:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T01:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351644"},"modified":"2023-12-05T04:04:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T04:04:33","slug":"hell-no-khawaja-responds-to-marnus-suggestion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351644","title":{"rendered":"'Hell no': Khawaja responds to Marnus suggestion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja<\/a> believes it's unlikely teammate Marnus Labuschagne<\/a> will join him at the top of the order, as speculation continues around David Warner<\/a>'s replacement.<\/p>\n

Coach Andrew McDonald<\/a> revealed on SEN last week there's an appetite to potentially shift the order around, with Labuschagne, Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh thrown up as potential options at the top.<\/p>\n

Khawaja believes his Queensland teammate wouldn't approve. \ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Teen signs insane $123m baseball deal without playing a game<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Selection battle that could shape Australia's Test cricket future<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"H\ufeffave you asked Marnus this?" he asked media.<\/p>\n

"I think he'll give you a really clear, 'Hell no'… I think that's a long shot."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Throughout his press conference ahead of the BBL's opening fixture, Khawaja wasn't willing to name a replacement for Warner, stating "I don't have a preference".<\/p>\n

However, he did suggest the next player would ideally have experience as an opening batter. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"Opening's not easy, it's tough work," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI can tell you that because I've batted one, two, three, four, five and six for Australia and I can tell you by far opening's the hardest.<\/p>\n

"It's very hard to bring someone who hasn't opened in (but) I'm positive you put Marnus up there opening he would do very well, but would he do as well at opening as he does at three? I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to take the risk. The man averages 55 at three and Steve Smith averages 60 at four so you wouldn't want to mess it around too much.<\/p>\n

"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 that haven't opened much in the past, open the batting for Australia."<\/p>\n

\"Teammates<\/p>\n

Khawaja also poured cold water on the idea of Head replacing Warner, explaining his success in the middle order means there's "no point".<\/p>\n

Another contentious decision for selectors this summer will be \ufeffwhether they try to fit two all-rounders in the side due to the form and ability of Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh.<\/p>\n

Both men were selected in the final Ashes Test, due to the absence of Nathan Lyon and Australia preferring to not play a spinner.<\/p>\n

Khawaja praised the talent of Green and didn't display any envy towards the decision facing selectors. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"I'm a big Cameron Green fan\ufeff, I think he's a gun," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's a tough decision, it's going to be stiff both ways … he (Green) scored a hundred in Melbourne on Boxing Day last year, scored a beautiful hundred in India too. Missed out a couple of times in England but England's a tough place to go first time around. Trust me, I can tell you that.<\/p>\n

"I think he can bat, he \ufeffaverages 45-plus in first class cricket, bowls 140km as an all-rounder and he's one of the best catchers I've ever seen, especially when he's fielding at gully.<\/p>\n

"So it's a tough one to leave out, obviously Mitch Marsh done well when he came back into the side in England, done well in white-ball cricket, it's going to be a tough one for selectors."<\/p>\n

The Test summer begins in Perth on December 14.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja believes it's unlikely teammate Marnus Labuschagne will join him at the top of the order, as speculation continues around David […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351648,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351644\/revisions\/351648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/351646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}