Khawaja was asked at Cricket Australia’s Play Cricket Week campaign in Brisbane if the home Ashes series of 2025-26 was still in his sights.
“In 2025 … one series at a time I go with,” Khawaja grinned. “You can get ahead of yourself and look to that time [in 2025] and think, ‘I can probably get there’, but I don’t want to [do that].
“I like playing one summer at a time and seeing how the body is going, how the mind is going and whether I am enjoying it. It is those three things. I am ticking those three boxes at the moment so I will keep playing.”
Khawaja has had a few weeks to reflect on this year’s thrilling Ashes series.
“I have had so many people come up to me and tell me how good the Test series was. So for cricket…cricket definitely won,” he said. “I’ve had more than 50 people tell me the last couple of weeks how much sleep they lost watching the Ashes.
“We would have loved to have won but we have now retained [or won] four Ashes series in a row…2019 and 2023 in England. The last time England won in Australia was 2010-11, when I debuted.
“So we’ve been dominating Ashes cricket for a long time and that is the bigger picture. England is going to have to come back here and beat us and do something they haven’t done for a very long time.”
Khawaja said the Play Cricket Week initiative, which features approximately 150 high-profile cricketers around the country, was vital to encourage kids to take up the sport.
“Participation is the be-all and end-all for cricket,” Khawaja said. “It is great to see the young boys and now it is really exciting to see the females in participation. When I was younger it was very different. The amount of girls that come up to me these days and ask for an autograph is pretty cool.”
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