Usman Khawaja says he's enjoying great support from his teammates during Islam's holy month of Ramadan
Usman Khawaja has admitted that he has the complete support of Australia's support staff as he is observing the fasting period during Ramadan. The left-hander admitted that he takes the final call and nothing has been forced on him.
While Khawaja is far from the first cricketer to have juggled playing with fasting during Ramadan, thanks to the support he has received, he has been able to do it on his own terms.
"They don't force me to do anything," he says. "It's a choice, it's my personal choice. They know that at the end of the day I wouldn't do anything to jeopardise the team in any way.
"And what I'm doing now, I've said to them before that when I fast I make sure I do everything as well as I can. And if I'm not doing it as well as I can, I will stop doing it and catch it up later on, which is always an option. So they've been really good. I've been doing it for the past 10 years playing cricket.”
The 29-year-old admitted that his unwillingness to make a huge fuss of it sometimes means not everyone is aware.
"Sometimes people forget that I'm doing it because I don't like to talk about it. I think that might have happened last week when we were doing that big fielding session," he added."But they're quite understanding about it now since I've been doing it for so long, so it's been good.”
Khawaja on his routine
The left-hander admitted that fasting every day is difficult especially with all the training and playing but admitted that his priority is always the team.
"I've done half the days so far. I did it one training day last week and I was absolutely buggered," he said with a smile.
"It's been alright. It's something that I really enjoy doing, but if it's affecting my cricket or my training in too much of a negative way then I probably won't do it. It just depends on the situation. It's something I believe really strongly, something I love doing and I hate missing it so I try and do everything I can to do it.
"But obviously during games it's a bit hard to have enough water and to stay switched on. If you don't have water, you don't realise how slow you become.”
The left-hander posted his highest ODI against West Indies earlier in the week and with David Warner's injury, will be crucial to his side's chances of winning the tri-series.