Australia vs South Africa third Test 2023 day four LIVE cricket scores, highlights, results, latest updates, videos

Usman Khawaja said it would be “pretty harsh” for skipper Pat Cummins to declare and deny him the chance at a maiden Test double-ton.

Speaking after Sydney lost a 26th full day of play to rain – more than the rest of the Australian Test venues combined – Khawaja needs just five more to notch up the milestone at his home test.

On day two he became just the fourth player to ever score three successive centuries at the SCG.

“I think it’d be pretty harsh if he bowled straight away. I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said.

“He’s (Cummins) been making a few jokes … just walking around (saying) ‘I’ve let Deano (Elgar) know that we want to go out and have a bowl straight away’.

“He’s been in the change room taking the mickey out of me.

“We could go out there and get a few more runs really quickly or we could declare pretty much straight away. I’m not the captain … I don’t make those decisions.”

Former Aussie captain Mark Taylor said there are stories like Khawaja’s – of cementing himself in the side relatively late in his career – scattered throughout cricket history.

“Cricket is a game of timing there’s no doubt about that – not just timing with bat on ball, it’s timing in terms of when you make runs and when you get opportunities,” he told Wide World of Sports.

“Usman is playing terrific cricket at the moment … and people will say ‘he should’ve played more’ but you could say the same thing about Mike Hussey, who didn’t debut til he was nearly 30.

“There’s a lot of cricketers who, when they got their opportunity late, have made a lot of runs. That’s just the game.

“It just shows Test cricket is not easy, (and) when you are doing well, what you’ve got to do is what Usman is doing, and make the most of it.”