ADELAIDE, Australia — It was a dramatic Ashes return for Usman Khawaja, helping Australia to 94-2 after the first session of the third cricket test against England.
The veteran opening bat was rushed back into the lineup to replace Steve Smith just before the toss of the coin Wednesday, went to the crease at the fall of two quick wickets, survived a dropped catch on 5 and was unbeaten on 41 at the interval.
He shared an unbroken 61-run third wicket stand with Marnus Labuschagne (19) after the Australians lost two wickets in six deliveries.
Smith led Australia to eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins. He hit the winning runs in Brisbane as Australia took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, leaving England needing a victory in Adelaide to have any chance of reclaiming the Ashes.
Khawaja missed the second test with a back injury and, a day before his 39th birthday, may have been considering test retirement after being initially omitted from Australia's lineup.
His prospects changed very quickly when Smith was ruled out because of nausea and dizziness.
After Cummins won the toss and elected to bat in his first test since sustaining a back injury in July, Australia's new opening partnership of Travis Head and Jake Weatherald was coasting at 33 without loss in the ninth over against some fairly wayward bowling from Brydon Carse.
But Jofra Archer struck with the second ball of his fifth over, cramping Weatherald (18) with a short ball at almost 148 kph (92 mph) and getting a top edge to fly up for an easy caught behind.
