Australia gave Usman Khawaja a fitting farewell at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) with a five wicket win over England in the fifth and final Ashes 2025-26 Test on Thursday. With this win, Australia clinched the series 4-1, with their only loss coming in Melbourne in the fourth game.
Playing in front of his home crowd for one last time, Khawaja came to bat in the middle order and could manage just six runs before dragging a Josh Tongue delivery on to his stumps. However, his wicket didn't affect the Australian chase as the hosts romped home in just 31.2 overs.
The southpaw acknowledged the whole SCG crowd on his last walk to the dressing room as the whole stadium gave the local boy a standing ovation. Earlier, Khawaja scored 17 in Australia's first innings total of 567 in reply to England's 384. In the second innings, England were bowled out for 342 runs on the fifth morning, leaving Australia a small target to achieve.
Alex Carey hit the winning runs, with Cameron Green unbeaten on 22 at the other end.
‘I was trying to act cool’ - Usman Khawaja
Speaking on his emotions, Khawaja admitted it was hard to control. “I found it really hard to concentrate a lot. Even in the first innings, I found it hard to get into rhythm. And even today, it was... my whole career, particularly the last end of the career has been built on process, process, process,” Khawaja said after the game.
“Very tough. I was trying to act cool, but the Test intense match, I found it really hard to control my emotions,” added Khawaja, who finished with 6229 runs in 88 Tests. In Tests, Khawaja scored 16 hundreds with a best of 232. He has also played 40 ODIs, scoring 1554 runs, including two tons.
Most runs, most wickets in Ashes 2025-26
With three hundreds in the series, Travis Head finished as the highest run-getter. The Australian opener accumulated 629 runs in 10 innings with a best of 170. For England, Joe Root emerged as the top run-getter with 400 runs, which included two hundreds.
Among the bowlers, Australian Mitchell Starc proved to be way better with 37 scalps in five matches, including two one seven-wicket and a six-wicket haul. For England, Brydon Carse was the best with 22 wickets.