Australia batter Usman Khawaja is reportedly unhappy after claims over him lying about being injured to skip his domestic team Queenland’s fixture against South Australia.
Khawaja reportedly cited hamstring injury and an ankle issues that flared up during Australia’s Sri Lanka tour as the reasons behind his unavailability, but he stirred controversy after attending all five days of the Formula 1 2025 season opening Australian Grand Prix with his wife.
Despite the injury concerns, Khawaja reported didn’t plan to participate in any Sheffield Shield game upon his return from the two-test tour of Sri Lanka.
With Queensland needing a win against Tasmania to keep their hopes of qualifying for the final alive, he made an appearance despite a suffering minor hamstring issue on match eve.
The veteran opener chose to not play in Queensland’s final league fixture against South Australia which ended in a draw and thus secured them a spot in the final.
With Ian Healy had also made strong comments on media, he said, “It’s just this pick and choose mentality that has been evident in his later years that Queensland haven’t been happy with.”
Usman Khawaja hits back on Friday with a defence of his injury and his actions, after missing the game against South Australian at Karen Rolton Oval last week.
“There’s a lot of misinformation being thrown around,” Khawaja said. “The most disappointing thing was, I try to keep this as in-house as possible behind the scenes. It’s obviously not anymore.
“Joe Dawes came out the other day and said a few inflammatory things, which was really disappointing to me as a player, and after that, I just felt like I had to speak up and say something, and give my side a story.”
“Joey said that the medical staff had no idea. That is 100% wrong. I’ve talked to both our physios. I’ve talked to the Australian physio. I was talking to the Australian physio the whole time. It’s on our athlete management system (AMS).
My hammy is reported. Everything is there. Everyone knew about it. That was probably one of the most shocking things I heard.
It was really disappointing because it’s categorically untrue. So I just wanted to clear that up, that the physios 100% knew about my hammy injury.”
“It’s a no brainer. So that was decided. Then George Bailey messaged me, and he said, ‘How’s everything going? What’s happening with QC?’ I said I haven’t heard from anyone in QC, and from when that Tasmanian game finished.”
“I didn’t hear from Joe Dawes. I don’t hear from Botha. I don’t hear from any medical staff in Queensland Cricket. So I assumed everything was fine.
“And then a few days later, I started hearing murmurs and reports about me opting out and all this stuff. And I was fuming. I was actually really devastated. I was really disappointed. A board member started to attack me, which was really disappointing for me.
“To be honest, the other bit about me not wanting to play for Queensland was probably the most disheartening thing. The amount I’ve given to Queensland, just like Joey would have given too, you give your heart and soul. You can tell I get a bit emotional, you give a heart and soul for this organization.”
After his discussions with Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey, Khawaja said a plan was put in place for the end of the Shield season before he would have all of April and May off ahead of the WTC finals.
“We came up with a plan that I would play Tasmania and I would take the next game off,” Khawaja said. “And these are all fluid, but at the moment, I played Tasmania, took the next game off with the light of playing the Shield final. We’re trying to avoid me playing back-to-back games. I’m 38 years old guys. I can’t burn the candle at both ends.
Khawaja said that he had a fitness test with Queensland Physio Stephen Timmins on his hamstring ahead of the Tasmania game and could only run at 70%. He then said both Bailey and Australian team physio Nick Jones reached out after the match regarding his hamstring.
“I said, the hammy’s not great,” Khawaja said. “It’s feeling like it’s gonna pop. I think we should stick to the same plan that we had. And [Jones] was, like, 100% agree. It’s too much risk for you to go out and play back to both games,” Usman Khawaja added.
