'Dying a slow death': Australia star's grim prediction for ODI cricket, 'Third-ranked behind Test and T20Is'

South Africa pulling out of their ODI series in Australia and Ben Stokes's retirement from the format has led to questions being raised on whether the format is on its way out of international cricket.

ODI cricket seems to be facing a grim future with an increasing number of current and former players stating that the format could be on its way out from international cricket. South Africa had recently pulled out of their ODI series in Australia while England Test captain Ben Stokes recently retired from the format.

Team India after beating England 2-1 in a three-match ODI series (BCCI)

Now, Australia batter Usman Khawaja has said he is “not into one-day cricket as much" and the format is dying a “slow death”.

"My own personal opinion - I know a few of the guys are very similar - you've got Test cricket, which is the pinnacle, you've got T20 cricket, which obviously has leagues around the world, great entertainment, everyone loves it, and then there's one-day cricket," Khawaja said on ESPNCricinfo.

"I feel like that's probably the third-ranked out of all of them. I think personally one-day cricket is dying a slow death...there's still the World Cup, which I think is really fun and it's enjoyable to watch, but other than that, even myself personally, I'm probably not into one-day cricket as much either."

Khawaja, however, said that this isn't the case with the longest format of the game. He said that Test and T20s can be balanced quite easily but a third format causes problems.

"The majority of people I talk to still love Test cricket," he said. "It's my favourite format. Think Test cricket still has a very strong presence so don't really see that going anywhere. Think both [Tests and T20] can be quite easily balanced, but then you ask yourself the question does one-day cricket give," he said.