Interesting piece on Usman

I don't know many of you are regular readers of Cricinfo, but there's an interesting  article on there about Usman Khawaja.

I don't know a thing about the writer, although some of those commenting below the piece seem to suggest he favours Shaun Marsh and has an axe to grind, but I present the piece to you at face value. Whatever the author says about Khawaja's integration with the Australian squad, the consensus was that he was a highly valued and appreciated member of Derbyshire's last season. In any walk of life there will be environments in which you are more comfortable than others and perhaps the weight of expectation weighed on Usman in the Aussie camp. He is, after all, seen as the heir-apparent for Ponting's slot at number three, a role not without an element of pressure, yet it seems that he has work to do.

What is clear is that the writer shares my concerns over Usman's scoring rate. He is a long way from a stonewaller but there appears a wider concern over his ability to keep a scoreboard ticking over when the bowlers are on top. Nothing is more annoying for a bowler than to be going for three or four an over when conditions are in his favour, especially when singles mean he has to continually adjust his line, possibly length, for different batsmen. Working the ball into space and keeping the runs ticking over is what separates the good and the great. None were better at it than Dean Jones and Peter Kirsten and neither were what I would call big hitters.

It also confirms that Usman has got two points to prove in the coming season, in scoring runs in sufficient quantities and in a manner to silence his doubters. If you're a regular reader of this blog you will know I have some reservations about him in the T20, where his lack of experience and achievement in the format is in stark contrast to that of Rana Naved, a specialist if there ever was one. Khawaja's run tally and style at the crease in the Big Bash suggested a player not wholly at ease in the format. For me, where he came unstuck was in trying the big shots, ending up caught in the outfield when not quite middling them. Far better would have been working the ball into gaps for ones and twos and allow the cleaner strikers of a ball greater licence to thrill.

Usman will never out-hit Wes Durston, Ross Whiteley, Rana Naved or Chesney Hughes, but he could make their life easier by affording them plenty of strike when they are going well. I wouldn't dare to compare my cricket ability with Khawaja, but I once shared in an opening stand of 110 in 9 overs for my club, my share being exactly nine - from nine balls. I simply worked a single from the first ball of the over and let my partner lose several balls in a neighbouring field before departing for 101...

Having said all that, at a time when overseas stars are a rare and precious commodity, Derbyshire have landed two outstanding batsmen in Khawaja and Martin Guptill and a genuine specialist for the T20 in Rana Naved. I expect all to play a significant and successful part in our forthcoming campaign.