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 Jake 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 Uzman Khawaja opening the batting. Who he opens with remains a
01:17mystery, but George Bailey likes what Wetherill it brings. He scores at a nice rate, he puts bad
01:22balls away, he's looking to score. He's aggressive without being over the top. So why the uncertainty?
01:29Well, Arnas Labuschand will be coming back into the side after a great start to his domestic season.
01:34He is capable of opening or batting through, but either option creates issues.
01:38If he does bat three, it will almost certainly mean that Darwin-born Jake Wetherill will make his debut
01:51and open alongside Khawaja. He's been through all the ups and the downs of domestic first-class cricket.
01:57Had some great successes of recent times, and it'd be great to see him walking out in the first ball
02:02of 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
02:14since having spinal surgery. So the selectors have a decision on their hands. Do they pick the guy
02:18with 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 and
02:33Webster will bat six. However, Green has struggled at three, which is why there is some speculation that
02:37Smith will bat three and Green four, where he's had success. And Labuschand isn't a specialist opener,
02:42so he's at the best team. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
02:47Beautifully played from Khawaja. That's ripping all the way to the rope.
02:51It'll be full.
03:00you
