Opener Jake Weatherald has secured a place in Australia’s Ashes squad and is the leading contender to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order for the first Test in Perth.
But chief selector George Bailey said the Tasmania batter had not yet secured a spot in the XI, and Australia will wait until the end of the coming round of Sheffield Shield matches before a decision is made on the final line-up.
“I think if you look at [Weatherald’s] performance over 18, 24 months, it’s been really solid,” Bailey said. “There’s a method there that I think we like and is complimentary to those other players around him in the squad. He scores at a good rate, the way he goes about building his innings has been impressive.”
Weatherald averages almost 38 in first class cricket, but has scored three half centuries in his three Sheffield Shield matches this season.
Marnus Labuschagne has also been recalled after he was left out of the tour of the West Indies earlier this year, and Bailey confirmed the Queenslander had the “capability” of opening.
The selector said Labuschagne has made some adjustments and is in a “good place”. The 31-year-old has scored five centuries already this season.
“As soon as he was left out of that West Indies [tour] team, his first question is, ‘well how many runs do you need for me to come back?’,” Bailey said. “It was a very clear message that the runs would be a byproduct of some of the other things that we wanted to see, and part of that was – not getting back to the old Marn – but a method and a way of batting and some technical things that we wanted to see.”
The first Ashes Test begins at Optus Stadium on 21 November.
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Australia squad: Steve Smith (captain), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald and Beau Webster.
More to follow.
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