A few weeks back, Usman Khawaja raised some old school eyebrows by being rested from consecutive Sheffield Shield games for Queensland.
He’s captain of his state, he’s not injured, and the Ashes were months ago. Surely, he doesn’t need a rest or more time with his family? Or so the argument went. It was the sort of critique raised around the same time by Mitchell Johnson, when he questioned why Lance Morris was being rested by Cricket Australia following his recovery from a back stress fracture.
[…]
“It’s an amazing effort, a great effort. Massive credit has to be given to Andrew McDonald, George Bailey and Patty,” Khawaja told this masthead.
“I think a lot of times in the past with coaches and leadership members in the Australian cricket team, they didn’t respect how hard Test cricket is mentally.
[…]
“But I think Patty and especially Andrew and George understand how hard it is to be able to mentally perform at international level. I don’t think the guys would have been able to perform at the international level the way they have this year if it wasn’t for those people at the top.
“I know for a fact that they have worked hard at taking the load off, taking the pressure off, taking the stress off, and letting the players play at their best for as long as possible. […]
