At the start of the Australian summer, Usman Khawaja was a man at peace with his lot. His last Test to date had come at Headingley in 2019 (you know the one) and if that ended as his last Test ever, he was OK with it.

“I’m in a really good spot,” he said. “And I have a lovely family, a beautiful wife, and a beautiful daughter. I’m really enjoying my life at the moment. I’ve got a lot of things to be grateful for. I’d love to play for Australia. If it happens, if it doesn’t, honestly, it’s not in my thinking.”

When Travis Head won the No.5 selection debate ahead of the first Test against England, and then smashed the third-fastest century in Ashes history, the matter looked settled, only for a positive Covid-19 test to give Khawaja a chance. Almost certainly, a final chance. And he took it with both hands.

Twin centuries at Sydney weren’t quite enough to give Australia victory, but, with Marcus Harris’ form iffy, Khawaja retained his place when Head returned, moving up to open alongside David Warner. A fairytale tour to his birth country of Pakistan beckoned, and Khawaja’s dream recall rolled on, with a 97 at Rawalpindi followed by 204 runs for once out at Karachi. It’s enough to raise the question, just how far could this latest chapter run on for?

Khawaja’s Test record at present reads 3,443 runs at 45.60, with 11 hundreds. That’s impressive – it’s as many tons as Ben Stokes has, from 48 Tests compared to 77 – but it’s not yet great, by any measure. At 35 years old, it’s reasonable to wonder whether the next dip, whenever it comes, could be the last one. Equally, there is precedent for Australians to bloom late in the Test side, with the examples of Chris Rogers and Simon Katich both pertinent. The former managed 1,996 runs at 44.35 after being recalled a few weeks before his 36th birthday, while the latter scored nearly 3,000 runs at an average in excess of 50 after being recalled in 2008 not long before his 33rd. Neither quite qualify as Australia greats, but were Khawaja to keep playing until his 37th birthday, he could add another couple of thousand runs and end up with an average near, or even above 50, with a hundreds tally in the mid to high teens.

Would this qualify as greatness? It depends on your definition. There are very few with more than 5,000 runs who don’t qualify as greats for Australia, and if it might be pointed out that Khawaja would end with a few gaps in his record, that hardly bars Warner, who averages less than 30 in five different countries, from the conversation. Some of the boxes are already ticked off. A Player of the Match performance in an Ashes Test? Tick. A properly great hundred in an away Test? Tick and then some, with the Dubai blockathon in 2018 restoring pride after Sandpapergate and showing Khawaja could do it against spin all in one blow (or rather 302 of them).

But Khawaja’s greatness could lie not in what he does himself, but in what he helps Australia achieve. They are currently ranked No.1 in the world, and while that status is based on their home dominance, a level scoreline heading into the decider in Pakistan suggests they are capable of mounting a challenge away from home, and they have just about had the better of the series so far. Australia are top of the World Test Championship as it stands, with series in Sri Lanka and India and at home to South Africa to come. A push towards the final, with Khawaja driving them from the top, could well be possible. A two-year purple patch, helping to make Australia the best side in the world, along with all that’s gone before it, would surely be enough for ‘great’ status. Only the most churlish of England fans would deny Jonathan Trott, who did similar in a similar timeframe, that same tag.

Should that happen, the question could become a regretful one, asking why Khawaja has been in and out of the side so often. Ricky Ponting, speaking on the Grade Cricketer podcast recently, pointedly posited that Khawaja has “ been in our best six batsmen from the moment he started playing for Australia”, and given that the tale of Australia’s Test fortunes since his debut has hardly been one of unmitigated success, it’s hard to see why he was, at times, afforded such little rope, when others were given plenty. After Karachi, his average as an opener sits at 89.11, the highest of anyone in Test history with a minimum of 500 runs. Since his debut, he is fourth among Australians for runs and hundreds, and seventh for averages, with three of those above him – Michael Clarke, Adam Voges and Michael Hussey – retired.

But no sporting career goes as planned, and, as Khawaja himself will surely reflect, this chance might never have come. And what he might end up with could still be pretty special.