Melbourne, Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes it will be difficult for batsman Usman Khawaja to make a return into the national team after being ommitted from Cricket Australia's central contract list for 2020-21.

Ponting feels Khawaja's inconsistency is a big problem and so far in his career, the southpaw has only shown glimpses of the brilliance which he is capable of.

"I honestly think now he's going to find it difficult (to get back into the Australian team) and I feel for him," Ponting told ABC Grandstand as per ESPNCricinfo.

"I love Usman Khawaja, I got really close to him over the last 10 years since he made his debut and I talk to him quite regularly.

"I've always felt he's a very good player and we probably never saw the absolute best of him at international cricket. We saw glimpses of it, and dribs and drabs, but not the consistently good player I thought he could have been for Australia."

Earlier, former Australia captain Michael Clarke had questioned CA's decision to exclude Khawaja from its list of centrally contracted players.

The new list for the upcoming year was announced last month and featured a number of limited-overs specialists with the upcoming T20 World Cup in mind. Khawaja has so far played only nine T20Is, the last of which was in September 2016.

"I find it very hard to believe that someone with the talent and the runs behind him over 10 years isn't in Australia's top 20 players," Clarke said on Big Sports Breakfast.