USMAN Khawaja's century against New Zealand in Wellington has finalised his progression from failed No.3 experiment to Ricky Ponting class.
Khawaja, 29, has managed to bust open the curse that has plagued Australian cricket since Ponting's retirement five years ago.
As hopeless as Australian cricket's search for the next Shane Warne has been, the inability to fill Ponting's void in arguably the most pivotal batting position has been at the heart of two Ashes losses. 
Khawaja was himself a statistic tossed to the wayside as the first of 11 men to be given a crack at No.3 and survive for no longer than Shane Watson's record of 14 matches.
Khawaja has come back as the true heir to the throne with yesterday's commanding 140 in the first game of a two-Test series, the fourth hundred he has scored in his past six Test innings at an average of 128.8.
After 20 Test innings he has a more commanding record in the pressure-cooker first-drop position than Ponting did at the same stage.
Khawaja's four centuries and 961 runs at an average of 53.38 is superior to Ponting's start of two centuries, 931 runs and an average of 51.7.
The elegant left-hander is also shading No.3 giants Kumar Sangakkara (45.4), Hashim Amla (31.3) and Kane Williamson (28.1) at the identical point of their careers.
Khawaja has the cricket world at his feet but admitted he felt he was carrying the globe on his shoulders when he first followed Ponting into the side.
"I always felt when I first played for Australia that I was sort of playing for my spot a little bit," he said.
"I never really felt like I was in the team. I felt like I was sort of looking over my shoulder.
"This time it came around I scored 100 in my first game and that sort of relieved the pressure a little bit.
"But even before I played that game Boof (Australian coach Darren Lehmann) had a chat to me and just told me to relax and said I'd get a fair crack at it. That helped too." Khawaja stopped short of calling yesterday's ton at the Basin Reserve the best of his career but conceded the back-to-back partnerships of 126 and 168 he piled on with Steve Smith and Adam Voges were as crucial as any he has been in.
"That was satisfying," he said. "It can go one of two ways (when early wickets fall) and as a top order batsman you always pride yourself on getting partnerships." Khawaja said he now felt like he belonged.
KHAWAJA'S FIRST 20 INNINGS STACK UP Sir Donald Bradman - (AUS) 2263 runs at 119.1 Sir Viv Richards - (WI) 1612 at 80.6 Brian Lara - (WI) 1231 at 61.55 Rahul Dravid - (IND) 1092 at 60.66 USMAN KHAWAJA - (AUS) 961 runs at 53.38 Ricky Ponting - (AUS) 931 runs at 51.7 Kumar Sangakkara - (SRI) 863 runs at 45.42 Hashim Amla - (SA) 594 runs at 31.26
FIRST TEST NZ V AUS
BASIN RESERVE, WELLINGTON New Zealand first innings 183 Australia first innings J BURNS c Watling b Southee 0 D WARNER c Watling b Southee 5 U KHAWAJA lbw Boult 140 S SMITH c&b Craig 71 A VOGES not out 176 M MARSH c&b Boult 0 P NEVILL c Watling b Anderson 32 P SIDDLE not out 29 Sundries (4b 2lb 2w 2nb) 10 TOTAL: Six wickets for 463 Fall: 0 (Burns), 5 (Warner), 131 (Smith), 299 (Khawaja), 299 (M Marsh), 395 (Nevill).
Bowling: T Southee 28-5-76-2 (1w), T Boult 27-6-80-2, D Bracewell 25-4-97-0 (2nb), C Anderson 14-0-68-1 (1w), M Craig 32-2-128-1, K Williamson 4-0-8-0.
Batting time: 544 minsOvers: 130