It was a far more diffident Khawaja who made his Test debut against England at Sydney exactly 10 years ago. He had been heralded as the most fluent of stroke-makers in Sydney grade cricket, as well as the first non-white to represent Australia in modern times having been born in Islamabad before his parents emigrated. He eased into a cameo, and he kept on easing into cameos except for a spell of four consecutive Test hundreds spanning 2015 and 2016.

Justin Langer, Australia’s head coach, does not like cameos of 30. He picks dogged left handers in his own image. But when Travis Head had to be isolated for Covid, Australia had no alternative but Khawaja, who since his debut has covered all bases up and down the order. Hence, at the age of 35, it was not a diffident Khawaja who made his comeback after two and a half years, but a committed one who knew his own game; who was going to make the most of this last chance; who was still hungry but no longer too desperate to succeed; who was, in a word, in that most beautiful place for all batsmen, serene.

England will have to look around to scrape together an XI for the fifth Test. Australia’s selectors’ problem will be deciding who to leave out. Despite Khawaja’s insistence he’s “not really expecting” to play in Hobart, nobody has ever been dropped during a series in which he has averaged 238, as he now is. Yet Head deserves his place back after a match-winning 152 in Brisbane.

It will not be much of a compliment to Khawaja if he is shoved up the order to open in place of Marcus Harris. But he has opened before in seven Tests, and scored two of his 10 Test hundreds in that position. For what it is worth, Hayden, Morris and Bardsley opened too.