Upbeat Usman looking for new challenge

Usman Khawaja doesn't need to trawl too deeply through his memory bank to understand that performances in the preliminary outings of an overseas don't deliver currency of any great value.

Khawaja, who is expected to bat at No.3 in the Australian squad's final pre-Test warm-up match of their current Sri Lanka tour starting in Colombo on Monday, carries mixed memories of when he found himself in almost identical circumstances five years ago.

The then 24-year-old had arrived in Sri Lanka for Australia's previous campaign here in 2011 having made a creditable and much publicised Test debut against England months earlier and with expectations building of a lengthy tenure at the elite level.

A prophecy that gained credence at the outset of that series when Khawaja opened the batting with the late Phillip Hughes in Australia's sole pre-Test warm-up game against a Sri Lanka Board XI at Colombo's P Sara Stadium.

And retired midway through the second day with an undefeated 101 to his name.

Hughes and Khawaja pile up the runs in 2011 tour match // Getty

"It was my first tour match for Australia, so it was my first hundred in Australian colours so to say," Khawaja recalled today as the Australians enjoyed a day off before the upcoming tour game against another local Board XI at the same venue in the lush, low-rise suburbs of Colombo 8.

"So I have nice memories of this ground."

But history's cold annals show that warm feeling did not linger, with Khawaja installed at No.6 for the first Test of that 2011 tour where he posted a couple of 20s, followed by an undefeated 13 in the subsequent rain-ruined Test at Kandy before being bounced from the team for the third.

He lost his spot to fellow left-hander Shaun Marsh who had posted a century on debut in the second Test (when Ricky Ponting flew home for the birth of his second child) with Marsh justifiably retaining his place when Ponting returned for the third.

Khawaja would earn several Test recalls over the ensuing four years, but never for more than two or three matches at a stretch until the concurrent retirement of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Chris Rogers from the Test top-order last summer presented a once-in-a-generation opening.

Majestic Khawaja scores maiden Test ton

Which Khawaja seized with the surety of a professional athlete in the prime of his sporting life.

A maiden Test hundred (174) in that season's opening international led to another (121) in the next Test at Perth, where only a hamstring strain stalled his charge until he returned with 144 in last year's Boxing Day Test and then 140 when he next batted in a Baggy Green Cap against NZ at Wellington.

Which gives Khawaja 713 runs from six matches in his most recent incarnation as a Test batsman, and an average of 101 that would be considered freakish if his evergreen teammate Adam Voges was not averaging more than 160 in Tests across the same period.

Another silky ton for Khawaja

But the 29-year-old, who this week publicly announced his engagement to partner Rachel McLellan, only has to recall his Sri Lanka experience of 2011 to know how quickly fortunes can change for even the most assured of players.

Quick Single: Wedding bells for Khawaja

It's a cornerstone of the philosophy that has underpinned his journey from perennial peripheral to Australia's most promising and productive Test No.3 since Ponting vacated the role in 2012.

"Every time you go out on the field it's a new challenge – the conditions are different, the opposition is different, no two games are the same," Khawaja told cricket.com.au.

"So what happened in the past has no effect on what happens now.

"I'm a big believer in that, you just have to keep looking forward.

"The last game counts for nothing in the next game – good or bad.

"When you step on for a new game it's a completely new scenario and that's how I look at cricket now."

Extremely excited to announce. I liked it, so I put a ring on it. With God's will @rachelmclellan and I are engaged. 💍#engaged #futuremrs #inshaallah A photo posted by Usman Khawaja (@usman_khawajy) on Jul 14, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

The extent to which Australia's Test team has been recast over the past year or so is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that Khawaja – with a mere 15 Tests under his belt – boasts the second-oldest Baggy Green cap number (419) in the 15-man squad behind captain Steve Smith.

Which means nine of the players who take the field for Australia in the opening Test at Pallekele on the outskirts of Kandy on July 26 will have arrived in Test cricket after Khawaja made his debut at the SCG in January 2011.

But despite battling for years to secure a berth in Australia's Test line-up and having dealt with countless selection disappointments and injury setbacks along the journey, Khawaja does not see himself as a vastly different character to the one that arrived in Sri Lanka as a Test newbie in 2011.

Khawaja (left), Marsh and Ponting on the 2011 tour // Getty

Even though bald statistics would suggest his game has transformed beyond recognition since that time.

"It is tough to quantify," Khawaja said when asked if he could pinpoint what has demonstrably changed within him over the past five years

"I like to think I am (a different player and character) – in some respects yeah, but in some respects no.

"In five years you'd like to think you've improved as a cricketer, it's a long time.

"I'd like to think I've made improvements in some places and probably in other places where my strengths lie I'd like to think I've kept those strengths."