Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja says that One-day cricket is, “dying slow death”, due to too many T20 leagues and busy schedules.
Recently many questions have been raised about One-day cricket. England All-Rounder Ben Stokes announced his retirement from ODI cricket. Former Pakistan Cricketer Wasim Akram said that ODI cricket should be scrapped.
Ben Stokes said, “Three formats are just unsustainable for me now. Not only do I feel that my body is letting me down because of the schedule and what is expected of us.”
Stokes even said, “We are not cars. You can‘t just fill us up and we’ll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again.”
Read more: “We are not cars” Ben Stokes blames ‘jam-packed’ schedule for sudden retirement
Due to a busy cricket schedule teams are resting multi-format cricketers in ODI cricket.
Australia has played 17 ODIs since the COVID-19 pandemic, but Steven Smith best batter of the team has played only 5 ODIs surprisingly.
Australia announced the ODI squad for the series against Zimbabwe and Newzealand. Pat Cummins has been rested as he wants to be physically prepared for the upcoming summer.
Usman Khawaja said that the other two formats are overshadowing ODI-cricket currently.
“Fifty-over cricket is probably the toughest on the body … you ask any cricketer, 50-over cricket is very tough work,” Khawaja explained.
Khawaja further said, “You’ve got Test cricket, which is the pinnacle, you’ve got T20 cricket which obviously has leagues around the world, great entertainment, everyone loves it, and then there’s one-day cricket, and I feel like that’s probably the third-ranked out of all of them.”
“I think personally one-day cricket is dying a slow death, but at the end of the day, there’s still one-day cricket to be had. There’s still the World Cup, which I think is really fun and enjoyable to watch.”
“Other than that, I’m probably not into one-day cricket much either.”
Know about: Ian Bishop expresses concern over ODI cricket’s future after South Africa pulls out of Australia ODI Series
Khawaja haven’s represented Australia in ODIs since the ODI World Cup. But he believes ODI cricket is irrelevant now as teams are focused on the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022.
“Right now it feels like it’s not really that important because of the T20 World Cup,” Usman Khawaja said.
Khawaja about playing all three formats
Usman Khawaja said, “Something has to give because you can’t have all three formats all together playing all the games; you’re going to have to decide and choose. I don’t know how it’s going to go. I think T20 cricket’s here to stay definitely, and Test cricket’s here to stay definitely. But what happens to one-day cricket?“
Australian opener also added, “it was very tough for international cricketers to continue playing in all three formats, especially with the brutal traveling requirements. If you’re playing all three forms of the game, you’re not at home at all really. And the demand on your body mentally as well as physically. A lot of the guys might be playing also the IPL. There’s a lot of cricket. It can be very tough at the moment.”
Read more: Sourav Ganguly confirms India set to host South Africa, Australia ahead of the T20 World Cup
Usman Khawaja’s ODI Career
Usman Khawaja has played 40 ODIs so far. He has scored 1554 runs with an average of 42.0. Khawaja has scored 2 centuries whereas 12 half-centuries. Usman has played his last ODI match 3 years ago i.e. in 2019 against South Africa.
