In his absence, the management opted to debut Marnus Labuschagne at No.4, with relative success as the right-hander scored a hundred in just his first seven games, against South Africa in Potchefstroom. The right-hander also has cemented his place the top four, leaving Khawaja out of the squad. Following that, Australia’s coach Justin Langer has admitted that Khawaja needs to oust and outperform one of Warner, Finch or Smith to gain a recall in the Australian setup. 

"The way we are going to set up our game plan at the moment is Uzzie is competing with David Warner, Aaron Finch and Steve Smith at the top of the order. And at the moment our view is that those guys are getting the nod ahead of him... and that's why he missed out.," Langer told reporters.

"Maxwell has taken D'Arcy's spot mainly because we feel more confident getting overs out of Maxwell at the moment than we do out of Shorty in the middle overs. But it just goes to show what depth we've got when we're leaving Usman, D'Arcy and guys like Travis Head at home,” he added.