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Why Katich isn’t writing off Smith and Khawaja after slow starts to series
Lachlan Geleit, SEN • December 12th, 2024 4:46 pm
Simon Katich isn’t writing off Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith despite their slow starts to the summer.
Khawaja has made scores of 8, 4, 13 and 9 not out from four knocks while Smith has managed 0, 17 and 2.
While the experienced duo are performing well below their best, Katich saw signs from Khawaja in the first innings in Adelaide and Smith in the second dig at Perth to suggest the pair are finding a little bit of touch without turning it into big runs.
Katich also thinks that conditions haven’t favoured either batsman yet with Brisbane potentially offering them the best chance to cash in so far this series.
“I thought Uzzie did a good job in that first innings in Adelaide,” Katich said on SEN Mornings.
“It was tough conditions that night and I thought he and young McSweeney did a good job in making sure that Australia got to Stumps one down.
“Whilst he only got 13, it was the number of balls he soaked up early on … then he got the job done in the second innings in a little chase.
“With Smith, in Perth, he looked good in the second innings, got out on 17 and got a pretty good ball, but he's looked like he was moving pretty well and looked like he had good intent to try and score.
“It's been hard to get a read at this stage because both wickets against the new ball have been tough work for the top-order batsman.
“Hopefully at the Gabba, if we see good conditions like we have in the past, batting should be at some point very good for the guys to go on and get big scores.
“This is probably the Test where a few of those guys will want to really cash in and get a big hundred.”
While Katich still has belief in both Smith and Khawaja this summer, he is a little concerned for their long-term futures at the Test level given they’re 35 and 37 respectively.
“I'm not writing them off just yet, they're both obviously very good players, but the concern is their age,” Katich said.
“Test cricket's not easy when you get to 35-plus and then history suggests that not too many 35-year-olds play their best cricket at that age, Khawaja is probably the outlier because he has in the last couple of years, but he will be 38 soon.
“The challenge for him is to be able to go out there and still perform at the top of the order.”
The third Test between Australia and India at the Gabba begins on Saturday, December 14. Listen to every ball LIVE on SEN and the SEN app.
