Australia batter Usman Khawaja thinks the growing craze for T20 leagues worldwide and the hectic international schedule are slowly killing off ODI cricket.

The southpaw is the latest cricketer to weigh in on the debate for or against 50-over cricket after England all-rounder Ben Stokes announced his retirement from ODIs this week at the age of 31.

Calling playing all the three formats “unsustainable” for his body, Stokes announced his retirement from one-dayers.

Khawaja, who has represented his nation in 40 ODIs, told reporters in Brisbane on Friday (July 22) that the 50-over format is dying a slow death.

"I think personally one-day cricket is dying a slow death," he said.

"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," he added.

SEE ALSO: Leicester Cricket Ground to be named after Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar

In addition, the stylish left-hander questioned the format's relevance in light of the upcoming T20 World Cup in October.

"Right now it feels like it's not really that important because of the T20 World Cup," he said.

"Something has to give because you can't have all three formats all together playing all the games; you're going to have to decide and choose."

He pointed out that despite the demanding schedule, Test cricket remains the best form of the sport, with T20s following and ODIs coming last.

"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, and I feel like that's probably the third-ranked out of all of them," he said.

The Australian Test opener believes that playing in three formats is impossible for any cricketer as it is gradually wearing everyone down. 

"Not impossible, very tough. So much travelling. If you're playing all three forms of the game, you're not at home at all really," he said.

"There's a lot of cricket going on. Yes, you get to pick and choose, I guess, in certain respects what you want to play but look it can be very tough at the moment," he said further.

(With PTI inputs)