00:00The ashes are upon us yet again and it's set to be a great one, with England
00:03sending over its best team since 2011. With the first ball to be bowled on the
00:0821st of November, Australia has named a 15-man squad to travel to Perth. In that
00:12list are three potential debutants, pace bowlers Sean Ebert and Brendan Doggett
00:16and opening baiter Jack Wetherald. Not in the squad, at least for the first test, is
00:20Australian captain Pat Cummins who's dealing with a back injury. Hopefully he's
00:23on the Solovines for one test, so he'll be at a stage where it's important he's
00:28there as much for his physical preparation and then, as you said, he's the leader of the group.
00:34So what does this mean for the potential 11? On the bowling side of things, replacing
00:38Cummins will be the man who took the last home ashes by storm.
00:47With a test bowling average of 12.63 in Australia, Scott Boland will be a more than competent
00:51replacement. Main stage Josh Hazelwood, Mitch Stark and Nathan Lyon will round out the Aussie
00:56bowling attack for the first test. Alex Carey will take the gloves and bat seven.
01:00Number six is a far more uncertain proposition, so we'll come back to that.
01:04Number five will be mercurial match winner Travis Head and batting four will be Steve Smith,
01:08who will stand in as captain. There's a chance he'll bat three, which I'll explain later.
01:13The only other certainty in this team is Usman Khawaja opening the batting.
01:16Who he opens with remains a mystery, but George Bailey likes what Wetherald brings.
01:20Scores at a nice rate, he puts bad balls away, he's looking to score. He's aggressive without being
01:27over the top. So why the uncertainty? Well, Arnus Labuschand will be coming back into the side
01:31after a great start to his domestic season. He is capable of opening or batting three,
01:36but either option creates issues.
01:38If he does bat three, it will almost certainly mean that Darwin-born Jake Wetherald will make his
01:51debut and open alongside Khawaja. He's been through all the ups and the downs of domestic
01:55first-class cricket, had some great successes of recent times, and it'd be great to see him walking
02:01out in the first ball of the ashes and playing a cover drive or a pull shot that goes for four.
02:05That creates an issue at six though. Cam Green and Bo Webster both probably deserve to be that
02:10batting all-rounder. Both have also had injury issues, and Green's hardly bowled in the game
02:13since having spinal surgery. So, the selectors have a decision on their hands. Do they pick the
02:18guy with the highest ceiling, which is Green, given he bowls quicker and has test entries to his name,
02:23or do they pick based on dependability and back Webster, given he has hardly put a foot wrong since
02:28joining the test side at the beginning of 2025. If Labuschand opens, Green will likely bat three,
02:32and Webster will bat six. However, Green has struggled at three, which is why there is some
02:37speculation that Smith will bat three and Green four, where he's had success. And Labuschand isn't
02:41a specialist opener, so he's at the best team. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
02:46Beautifully played from Khawaja. That's ripping all the way to the rope it'll be pulled.
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