Usman Khawaja along with Alex Carey Step Up to Plug the Gaps as The English Side Squander Their Gifts

Blame it on fate, luck, or a oddity of probability, whatever your preference. Should Australia's first day in Adelaide was a jigsaw puzzle tossed into the air, the majority of the pieces came to rest the right way up and in the right place. This has been a recurring theme for the hosts in this contest: monstered by England's bowlers in Perth, only to engineer an even greater implosion; stumbling in Brisbane, rescued by the lower order.

England, in contrast, arrived with a gameplan founded on the belief that they could not succeed in Australia with pace bowlers and a wicketkeeper up to the stumps, then lost to lose to medium-fast seamers with a keeper up to the stumps. They were given the advantage of no Pat Cummins, no Josh Hazlewood, no Nathan Lyon and yet proceeded to suffer two defeats in six days. Their next match brought the following boon: Steve Smith missing with an ailment, their very own Ghost of Ashes Past substituted in the middle order by a aging, squinting top-order batter whom Australia had already tried to drop.

Out of politeness, England had to drop him too. In the cordon, on five runs, when the total would have been 50 for three. A couple of hours earlier, Usman Khawaja's Test future had been as good as over, with selectors finding a new option called the aggressive opening batter. Two hours later, Khawaja had been twice reprieved, first by Smith's balance issues, then by Harry Brook's lack of balance at slip.

A Unshackled Knock from the Middle Order

The demotion the order had merely saved him a brief period at the top, but that meant he almost entirely dodged Jofra Archer's intense opening burst, a possibly decisive non-matchup given Khawaja's poor recent years against high-speed bowling. Liberated, with little on the line, Khawaja produced his most fluent and composed knock since his last comeback through the middle of the batling order in 2022.

The other seamer was only slightly less rapid than Archer, but Khawaja capitalized on his mistakes while exploiting Ben Stokes's short ball to get his trademark pull shot going. He identified Will Jacks's vulnerability as a part-time bowler and attacked him accordingly. There was a fifty after lunch, amid a crucial rebuild with Alex Carey after some Christmas giveaways.

An Opportunity That Slipped Away, but Influence Made

There remains a good chance of this being Khawaja's final match, with Smith to return and the rest of the order not guaranteed to change, so a century that could have been both redemption and farewell would have been one hell of a story. But pushing against late-career limitations left it just out of reach. Steve Waugh in his last Test was fighting the dying of the light, dreaming of one final century, out instead attempting a big shot a spinner to deep midwicket. Khawaja, older still, was out slog-sweeping a spinner to the same fielder for 82.

Still, it was pivotal for the team, and another example of how disruption fails to faze these Australians. Misplace your top batter minutes before the match? The replacement has it covered. A unorthodox lineup to follow? It poses no issue either.

Carey's Hometown Heroics

The gloveman would traditionally bat at No 7, while the original idea at the outset was to bed in Cameron Green at No 6. The vacancy opened up by Travis Head's move was at No 5. And yet, instead of using Josh Inglis there, Australia inserted Inglis at No 7 and promoted Green and Carey up.

It seems normal about positioning an current keeper ahead of an off-duty one, but on this occasion it worked, maybe because Carey was unburdened in the first innings. He secured the century that Khawaja was denied, scoring in his characteristically positive way, creating a massive Adelaide moment as hometown crowds filled the ground.

Ultimately, he shepherded Australia's score from 85 when he arrived to 321 when he was out, and more might be added for the tail on the next day. Smith wasn't there, most of the top seven made scores of little substance, yet Australia are firmly in control, with a significantly larger total than looked likely at multiple points.

England's only path to change that is a powerful response: take two wickets, then occupy the crease for a long time in the heat. Any other approach relies on chance, or fortune, or a twist of probability. It's unwise to rely on any of them.