Jake Weatherald and Usman Khawaja batted alongside each other in adjoining nets at Perth Stadium on Monday.
There are similarities in their stances but that is about where the similarities end, both as players and as people. However, they have struck up a rapport already, at least publicly via the media, as two unique individuals willing to have some fun with each other.
Weatherald went first, stating on the Grade Cricketer podcast that he wasn’t sure if Khawaja knew his name despite playing against him for 10 years. The clip went viral on Instagram. Khawaja struck back with a comment on the post, “Who this?”
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Weatherald, on his first day in an Australian dressing room, continued the fun.
“He still calls me Jack, so we’ll get there eventually,” Weatherald told reporters on Monday. “Hopefully, if I get a game, he can find Jake there somewhere.”
Jokes aside, Khawaja could be forgiven for not remembering names given Weatherald is potentially going to be his seventh Test opening partner in the last two years.
That Weatherald still doesn’t know if he playing four days out from the first ball is an indicator of how unsettled Australia’s opening pair has been.
In Weatherald’s favour is that he is the most experienced opener of the six since David Warner retired, at least in first-class cricket. Every one of his 145 first-class innings have come opening the batting. He has more first-class innings and more centuries, 13, than Khawaja does in the position, albeit nine of Khawaja’s 11 have come in Test cricket where he has turned into one of Australia’s best ever.
Despite all that experience, though, a debut in an Ashes Test in Perth is a different beast. Even for a 31-year-old who has experienced some serious challenges in life, Weatherald went through what every new kid at school does on his first day.
There was a moment before he spoke to reporters, where he leaned on the fence and stared up at the gargantuan Perth Stadium stands and imagined what it would look like on Friday when all 60,000 seats are occupied.
“I’ve played a little bit of Big Bash cricket here, but at the same time, to represent your country in a place like this, it’s such a cool stadium,” Weatherald said. “To look out and see what it looked like, obviously with everyone full and obviously walking out to bat, I was sort of imagining what it’d be like to go out there.”
He was wearing his brand-new Australia whites, with his initials, JW, embossed on them and number 66 on the back. The same number worn by his potential opponent this week, Joe Root. It could very well be a nod to Chuck Berry and “Route 66”, given Weatherald’s passion for rock-and-roll guitarists.
There was, however, a number missing on his shirt. Eleven of Australia’s 13 squad members in Perth on Monday that had assembled for various media commitments also had their Test numbers embossed.
Weatherald and Brendan Doggett did not. They may well do by the end of the week. But it was a subtle reminder that this school is different.
He might have played BBL cricket at Perth Stadium before, with a match-winning half-century for Adelaide Strikers to win an elimination final against Perth Scorchers in his last outing at the venue. He also has a century at a full Adelaide Oval in a BBL final. But Test cricket is another level and Weatherald is aware that replicating what has made him the best Sheffield Shield opener of the past 12 months under Ashes pressure will be a huge challenge.
“It’s certainly going to be a difficult thing,” Weatherald said. “That’s a part of being an international cricketer, I guess, the fact there’s lot more to it. But at the same time, I think that’s going to be the true test for myself, to go out there and just try and operate the same way. And if I walk out there and nick off first ball then I walk out the innings after and try to repeat the same thing again, in terms of my process.”
Trusting his process is what has got Weatherald to the brink of a Test debut. He did not change a thing in his first net session with the team. While Khawaja, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and most others opted to face a majority of throw downs from the coaches on spicy surfaces, Weatherald stayed true to what he has been doing for Tasmania, facing the best bowlers he can in the nets to replicate match conditions as best he can.
He took on a brutal spell from Pat Cummins, facing a lion’s share of his eight overs. Beau Webster found nip and awkward bounce at a slightly less venomous, but no less nickable pace. Nathan Lyon found spin and bounce as well. Weatherald took it all on. It looked incredibly hard work. But he endured with the same positive mindset he has shown for Tasmania in recent times.
“He’s been a revelation for us at the top of the order,” Webster said of his Tasmanian team-mate.
“We were sort of crying out a little bit for someone who can take the game away early in the innings, and he does that. We saw even a couple of knocks this year to go with his exceptional year last year, where he puts the pressure back on the bowlers. And he does it quickly. He bats how you want to as an opening of batter in Australia right now. He punishes the bad ball, and he’s really selective when the ball’s around the stumps. So he’s been excellent for us.”
