Great opening batsmen come and go, but Usman Khawaja’s trailblazing role as Australia’s first Muslim Test cricketer and pathfinder for our growing band of local South Asian cricketers is his enduring legacy.

He announced his retirement on Friday and fused his two great Australian cricket achievements: “I’m a proud Muslim coloured boy from Pakistan who was told he would never play for the Australian cricket team – look at me now.”

Usman Khawaja after announcing his retirement on the eve of the Sydney Ashes Test Match at the SCG on January 2.Credit: STEVEN SIEWERT

Australian Test cricket was largely a monocultural sport. Of course, the 1868 Aboriginal Cricket Team tour of England highlighted Indigenous sporting prowess and predated the first recognised Test Match by nine years, but Test cricket remained a pretty white bread affair for decades, until

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