The complication is an eight-month gap until Australia’s next Test series against Bangladesh in August. If Khawaja does not retire next week, he may not receive a central contract early next year – a potential sign of whether he remains in Cricket Australia’s long-term plans.
Khawaja, who turned 39 this month, is the oldest specialist batsman to play Test cricket for Australia since Bob Simpson in 1977. He did not take part in the training session on Monday, like a number of other senior players. Jake Weatherald and Marnus Labuschagne were in the nets.
MCG curator Matt Page speaks with Australia coach Andrew McDonald on December 24.Credit: Getty Images
Asked if the decision would be entirely Khawaja’s, McDonald said: “It’s always a combination of conversations and where a team’s at. We’ve got a long time until that next Test series.
“I think he’ll come to us if he’s going to retire. There’s no doubt about that.
“If there was a series at the back-end of this, it would be a little bit different. But with the eight-month gap as a selection panel, we’ve got a lot of time to think about our next Test team should Uz push forward.”
Meanwhile, McDonald has thrown his support behind MCG curator Matt Page after an extraordinary two-day Test in Melbourne.
“I thought we would have got to day three or day four, but the cricket mixed in with the surface didn’t allow that, and we’ve got to take some accountability in the way that we play as well,” McDonald said. “It’s not wholly and solely the surface.
“It’s always a tricky balance. He does an outstanding job … and we have bad Test matches as well. We had a bad Test last summer [against India in Perth]. This Test, we weren’t at our best and sometimes these things can happen.
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“We support him in what he’s done and the evolution of the MCG.
“We’ve played on difficult pitches before, and we’ve been able to find a way through. In this game, we didn’t get the runs that we like. We had the game in a really good position with a 40-odd run lead at the halfway point.
“We set high expectations in the group, and we weren’t able to execute. We believe we’re a better batting group than that.”
