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Usman Khawaja has been an ornament to Australian cricket, but the time has come to put him back on the mantelpiece.

To say so is not to downplay his contribution as a prolific top-of-the-order late-career run-maker, nor to forget how easy on the eye he was to watch in his languid pomp. Those attributes stand forever.

Usman Khawaja is nearing the end of his career.Credit: Getty Images

It is certainly not to diminish Khawaja’s standing as a pioneering figure in Australian cricket history. He is the first Pakistani and first Muslim to play for Australia, proudly so, impactfully so. As such, he has been unafraid to stand on toes. In so many ways, he’s widened his stance and our horizons. Even those who disagreed with him could not deny that he was thought-provoking.

He has a platform, and he’s sought to use it for good. But that platform was built on runs, and it is now crumbling. It’s not that it can’t be rebuilt – unlikely as that is now that he has been overlooked for the Adelaide Test – but that it should not be. A man has to know his time and his place.

Cricket educes in Australians a sentimentality not much evident in any other endeavour. Seemingly, now is........

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