Australian veteran Usman Khawaja mocks critics of golf game as pressure mounts

Under-fire cricketer Usman Khawaja has made the interesting decision to mock critics of his highly controversial golf game ahead of the first Test in Perth.

The veteran opener — who turns 39 in December — suffered back spams during the Test and was unable to face the opening balls in either the first or second innings.

He only made two runs for the entire Test and came under heavy criticism when it later emerged that he had played golf the day before the Test and missed an optional training session.

In fact, it came to light that he had played three rounds of golf in three days ahead of the Test.

Now fans are experts are suggesting Khawaja should be dropped, particularly after the breathtaking innings by Travis Head that won the match for Australia.

Khawaja has since pulled out of the Australian Open Pro-Am tournament that he was hoping to compete in this week.

But if all the drama has upset him, he doesn’t appear to be showing it, going on social media on Monday night to stir the pot further by posting a picture of a golf course.

In a series of photos captioned “What a week! It had it all”, Khawaja shared photos of his teammates from the Perth Test, including Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland celebrating wickets and another photo of some players walking off the field.

Interestingly, he did not share an image of Head, who could now replace him as Australia’s opener, celebrating his magical century.

In the comments, Australian captain Pat Cummins dropped a golf swing emoji, while former Australian opener Dave Warner said “Foreeeeeee”.

Golf Physyio Aus also chipped in, saying: “Never stop golfing ⛳️,” and Channel 7 cricket expert Trent Copeland also joined the conversation with some “laugh out loud” emojis.

But not everyone is seeing the funny side.

Radio commentator and former rugby league star Jimmy Smith slammed Khawaja, saying “this an Australian golf representative who has a cricket problem”.

“And the biggest cricket problem Usman Khawaja has right now is that cricket is his second favourite sport,” Smith said.

Former Australian fast bower Mitchell Johnson was also critical and questioned Khawaja’s professionalism.

“Everyone has their way of preparing, and I’m not against players using golf as a way to switch off,” Johnson told The Nightly.

“But you’ve got to be professional too. Khawaja reportedly played golf in Perth for three days in a row leading into day one of the first Test.

“If I’d done that the day before a Test match, well, I couldn’t imagine playing 18 holes of golf the day before a Test match.

“Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg says it is drawing a long bow to link Khawaja’s golf with his back issue. From the outside, it doesn’t look great.

“Steve Smith, the stand-in skipper, didn’t look thrilled on Friday when he realised Australia’s much-considered batting order would be tipped upside down.

“The message Smith signalled to the bench late in the fielding innings made that clear.

“And I reckon Khawaja’s teammates who don’t spend as much time on the golf course might not be sympathetic either. These little moments matter in elite sport.

“You could reasonably argue that the preparation contributed to the back spasms, and if that’s the case, then that’s not doing your job properly for Australia.

“This level doesn’t give you much room to be held back by preventable issues and at Usman’s age his preparation for a huge series needed to be better.”

Meanwhile, Australia coach Andrew McDonald has failed to guarantee Khawaja will be selected for the second Ashes Test, even if he has recovered from his back injury.

“I’m not sure where he’s (Khawaja) at, medically,” McDonald said.

“There was discussions around further investigation to whether it was more serious than what we first anticipated.

“We get to camp in six days time (in Brisbane) so it’s a long way out, a lot of information to gather between now and then.

“Hopefully he’s fit and available for selection.”

Khawaja is averaging 27.44 during the past two years.

- With AAP