Usman Khawaja (Urdu: عثمان خواجہ; born 18 December 1986). Usman Khawaja is an Australian cricketer for the New South Wales Blues. Usman Khawaja was awarded player of the Australian Under 19 Championship in 2005 and also played for Australia in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka as an opening batsman. His club side is Randwick-Petersham.
Usman Khawaja is a top order batsman playing mainly First Class matches for New South Wales. He made headlines as the first local Australian Muslim and first player of Pakistani Australian background to play First Class cricket in Australia when he made his debut for NSW in February 2008 against Victoria. Usman is sponsored by Imapala Sports but since 2008 he has signed up with Slazenger.
In 2008 Khawaja hit consecutive double centuries for the NSW Second XI—a feat never before achieved by a NSW player. On 22 June 2010 it was announced by Cricket Australia that Usman Khawaja would be a part of the Australian touring squad to play Pakistan in a two Test series in England.
On 15 November 2010 it was announced by Cricket Australia that Usman Khawaja was selected as part of the 17-man Ashes Test Squad. During the third test, Ricky Ponting fractured his finger and Khawaja was named as a stand-by if Ponting couldn't recover in time.
On 30 December 2010 Usman Khawaja was selected in the Australian cricket team to play England in the fifth test which starts in Sydney 3 January 2011.
Other than being a cricket player, Khawaja is a qualified pilot and has completed a Bachelors degree in Aviation from University of New South Wales. Usman is an ex-student of Westfields Sports High School, which has also had a hand in the early sporting careers of Michael Clarke (vice-captain of the current Australian cricket team), footballer Harry Kewell and world champion discus thrower Dani Samuels.
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