About Usman Khawaja
Usman Tariq Khawaja (Urdu: عثمان خواجہ; born 18 December 1986) is a former Australian international cricketer who represented the Australia national cricket team in all formats from 2011 to 2026. Khawaja still plays for and captains the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League. Khawaja played domestic cricket for New South Wales from 2007 to 2012, before moving to Queensland where he would later become state captain. Khawaja made his first-class cricket debut for New South Wales in 2008 and played his first international match for Australia in January 2011. He played for the Sydney Thunder from 2011 to 2022, with whom he won the 2015–16 Big Bash League season, winning man of the match in the final, top scoring with 70 runs. He has played county cricket in the United Kingdom and briefly played in both the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League Twenty20 tournaments. Khawaja captained Queensland in first class cricket and from 2015 to 2024, captaining them to the 2020–21 Sheffield Shield title, batting No. 4. Khawaja opened the batting and scored a hundred, winning man of the match for the Queensland team that won the 2013–14 Ryobi One-Day Cup final. Khawaja played ODI cricket sporadically from 2013 to 2019 and only played T20I cricket for one season in 2016. He played in both the 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2019 Cricket World Cup. A left-handed batter, Khawaja has spent the majority of his international career batting at No. 3 or opening the batting. Khawaja was a member of the Australian team that won the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship. He was the second-highest scoring batsman in the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship with 1,621 runs, the highest by an Australian batsman. In 2023, he won the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year Award. Khawaja announced his retirement from international cricket on 2 January 2026 to take effect at the conclusion of the fifth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He officially retired from international cricket on 8 January 2026. Khawaja captained Queensland in first class cricket and from 2015–2024, captaining them to the 2020–21 Sheffield Shield title, batting No. 4.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.