Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja and his wife Rachel McLellan were blessed with a baby girl on Sunday (July 24). Khawaja confirmed the news on his Instagram account by sharing an adorable picture of himself and mother Rachel with the newborn baby.
Khawaja wrote,” Alhamdulillah, so grateful to be blessed with our first child Aisha. Like her dad she hates the cold! #babygirl #mashallah #mygirl #twotone #halfandhalf”
Soon after the news was announced on social media, celebratory messages and greetings started pouring in from fans across the world.
The duo got married in April 2018, and Rachel, who was a catholic, converted to Islam a few weeks before the wedding. Rachel earlier revealed that she would be picking some Islamic name, and the couple finally settled on ‘Aisha.’
The pair have been living together at their home in Queensland.
Pakistan-born Usman also captains the state team of Queensland in Sheffield Shield, while he represents Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League (BBL).
Khawaja missed out on a Cricket Australia (CA) national contract this year as Marnus Labuschagne was picked ahead of him.
Men’s selector Trevor Hohns remarked that Khawaja’s form in 2019 was quite unsatisfactory to earn him a national contract.
“Usman didn’t play cricket for Australia last year at all in any format after being dropped from the Ashes series and probably if I’m looking at Test cricket, Usman’s form in domestic (Sheffield) Shield cricket didn’t demand that he was chosen for Australia,” said Trevor when asked about Khawaja omission from the contract.
Despite falling out of favour with national selectors, the 33-years-old has been named in a preliminary 26-man squad for the Australia ODI tour of England in September.
