He was awarded the player of the match for his batting heroics in the first test which guided Australia to take an early lead in the Ashes series 1-0 thereby having a psychological advantage over the home side. Khawaja also set a new milestone for becoming only the second Australian batsman ever in test history to bat in all five days and became only the thirteenth man overall to bat on each day of a five day test match.
Khawaja's exceptional batting performance in the first test, which contributed to Australia's early lead in the Ashes series 1-0 and gave them a psychological advantage over the home team, is emphasized by his achievement of becoming only the second Australian batsman to bat in all five days of a test match and the thirteenth player overall to do so on each day of a five-day test.