Australia batter Usman Khawaja has laughed off the subject of Nathan McSweeney's strike rate of 41.92 being lower than his in Tests 48.3 and expressed belief that the young all-rounder is ready to take up the job left for grabs after David Warner's retirement.
The 25-year-old South Australian skipper is in line for his Test debut against India in Perth's first Test starting next Friday and is likely to be drafted in as the opener alongside Khawaja for the five-Test series against India.
Meanwhile, McSweeney comes into the reckoning having played in 34 first-class games with 2252 runs under his belt at an average of 34.16. His promotion comes on the back of an excellent couple of outings in the Sheffield Shield and a match-winning knock against India-A in the first of two Tests.
"I don't know where this myth started that you need someone to score really fast to do well. For me, it's a myth. As an opener, you're trying to score runs. You've got five days to do it," Khawaja told reporters on Wednesday.
For Khawaja, successful opening in Tests is as much about resilience as it is about runs. "Opening's as much about scoring runs as it is about being able to absorb. Davey (Warner) was special; he could score runs while absorbing, but he didn't do it [score fast] every time. Nathan does that very well, setting a platform," he said.
While there are some doubts about McSweeney being an opening batsman, Khawaja himself, who had moved up the order after batting at No 3, was confident that his partner would handle the pressure.
"No guarantee in cricket…. But he doesn't need to do anything differently. Just repeat the process. He's been able to cope with the pressure at Shield level. The way he goes about his business, the way he plays cricket, you do kind of think over a longer period of time he'll be able to handle the scrutiny and the pressure of Test cricket," said Khawaja.
