Jake Weatherald whacked his bat on his pad as he walked off the SCG. He had reviewed the lbw decision against Ben Stokes and looked hopefully at the big screen for the replay. But it had been given on-field, and it wasn’t a howler, so the odds weren’t in his favour. It was clipping leg stump.
Weatherald had been given two lives in the space of three balls earlier in his innings: spilled by Joe Root, a tough one above his head at first slip as he flashed at a short ball, and a simpler one to Ben Duckett at square leg from a pull he didn’t keep down. But he couldn’t cash in. Gone for 21. With one potential innings remaining in his debut series, on what could prove a tricky surface, it left Weatherald with 167 runs at 20.87. Nearly half of those came in one knock at the Gabba.
It was on this ground two years ago that Australia’s merry-go-round of opening batters began with David Warner’s final Test. Excluding Scott Boland’s nightwatchman appearance at the MCG, there have been seven to hold the role in 20 Tests since Warner’s retirement.
Until this series Usman Khawaja, who is finishing his Test career in the middle order, had been the common denominator. Weatherald was due to be his sixth partner – following Steven Smith, Nathan McSweeney, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head – but the Perth back spasms changed the script and opened the door for Head’s series-defining role.
As a comparison to Weatherald’s returns, Smith averaged 28.50 in eight innings as opener, McSweeney 14.40 in six and Sam Konstas 16.30 in 10. His current series tally is seven more than Ben Duckett and only 16 fewer than Ben Stokes. He appears to have carried the challenge well, posting on social media after the MCG Test of having signed more autographs than he had scored runs.
It was a bizarre start to Test cricket for Weatherald. Having expected to open with Khawaja in Perth, he ended up walking out with two different team-mates in one game: Labuschagne followed by Head. He sweated on a pair after being pinned lbw by Jofra Archer in his first innings but was able to play an important role in an opening stand of 75 which broke the back of the run chase.
His first innings at the Gabba was an excellent 72 from 78 balls as he took advantage of England feeding his cut shot. They threatened to do the same here with another wayward new-ball performance from Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts. Given the way England continued to bowl after Weatherald’s dismissal, he will likely be even more rueful.
But a theme to his dismissals has emerged over the course of the series. It’s one of the unique traits of a five-match contest where opponents go at each other for a sustained period time and technical issues can be exposed then exploited. The second day at the SCG was the fourth time Weatherald had been lbw in nine innings, although he would have saved himself with a review in the second innings in Adelaide. Two of the dismissals were from over the wicket, and two around, while the tickle down the leg side in the first innings in Melbourne also had him falling across the crease.
His other dismissals have been a top edge into the off side, a gloved pull and shouldering arms in the second innings at the MCG. In all, six of Weatherald’s dismissals this series have come from around the wicket.
“If you look at Jake Weatherald, he’s getting lower and lower in his stance and his head’s way outside the line of his feet,” Justin Langer said on Channel 7. “Because of that, he’s got to balance with his right foot, a common trait of batters whose head isn’t in the right position in their stance, [and] he’s falling over a lot. And you can see it, the same dismissal, head’s way over, very low. [He was] lbw in Perth, same in Adelaide, that fuller ball, his head’s so far over, it’s impossible to hit down the ground, where opening batters need to be looking to score, and again today.”
Weatherald was one of three Australia batters under scrutiny heading into this Test, alongside Labuschagne and Cameron Green, in itself a somewhat unusual circumstance for a side that is 3-1 up. Labuschagne missed the chance to convert his start when he edged to gully for 48 and Green’s opportunity is yet to come, although it will be from No. 8 once again after Michael Neser’s elevation as nightwatchman.
This series was never going to provide a new long-term opening pair for Australia given there was always a strong chance of Khawaja’s exit, but what is shaping as the end result was an unlikely outcome when it began. By stumps on the second day at the SCG, Head had become the first batter to pass 500 runs in an Ashes since Smith in 2019, and the first ever to do so at a strike-rate better than 75. It increasingly feels like if Head wants to keep the job, it’s his, and now it’s a question of who partners him.
Weatherald’s selection for this series was fully justified. He had been the standout domestic opener during last season, scored runs for Australia A and started this season solidly. He will be able to return to the Sheffield Shield for the latter part of this summer with Tasmania, and there is potentially a window for a county deal should he want one or a team come calling, but there is a long wait until Australia next play Test cricket against Bangladesh August. Time for both Weatherald and the selectors to ponder how the last six weeks has gone.
