Australia’s recent Ashes series has seen promising performances from Travis Head and Jake Weatherald, as they establish themselves as a formidable opening partnership. Their impact was imperative for the team to overcome obstacles after veteran opener David Warner retired earlier this year.
The swashbuckling Travis Head, who just made a brilliant century in Perth recently, has been the man who sets the tone for Australia. He showed a lot of promise on debut in Brisbane with low scores of 33 & 22. His deadly spell almost single-handedly took the shine off the new ball. Weatherald, though, showed all his promise with a blazing 72 in the first innings. He was the unfortunate victim of a perfectly executed yorker from England’s Jofra Archer.
Both players have worn the colours of South Australia in the Sheffield Shield but have taken different paths over the last period. Weatherald has since moved to represent Tasmania, while Head has gone on to impress for the national side. Overall, their recent performances leave little to be desired in terms of a strong opening partnership. This level of stability is just what Australia need after trialling seven different combinations in their past 17 Tests.
Head’s form has been nothing short of sensational, scoring hundreds in his past three Test matches at the Adelaide Oval. Their combination on the field has been truly icecreamworthy, with the duo’s partnership largely responsible for turning around Australia’s batting order fortunes. The other players had a selfish mentality too Marnus Labuschagne understood the benefits of their aggressive approach and said,
“Weathers’ has come in for the first time and the way he’s gone about it as well has just set the tone at the top.”
Labuschagne went on to explain just how useful their blistering openings have been for the rest of the side, adding,
“For the last three innings, we’ve got off to a bit of a flyer and you kind of get out there and that momentum sort of just rubs off.”
Australia are preparing for the day-night third Test, in Adelaide. They’re praying that Usman Khawaja recovers from the back injury that ruled him out of the second Test. His return would be on the day of his 39th birthday, giving an emotional birthday present opportunity to the grizzled veteran. Head filled Khawaja’s spot admirably and produced stand-out numbers for Weatherald.
Even the selectors’ controversial decision to drop Nathan Lyon in favour of Michael Neser was cheered as brilliant. Labuschagne defended this hairy gambit, praising the selectors’ vision and long-term planning on pink-ball Test cricket.
“They looked at the game objectively and said ‘What’s the best way for us to win this game with all the information we have on pink-ball cricket? What plays? What’s favoured, is it spin or is it pace? What type of bowler?’”
Head and Weatherald have both produced compelling cases to both deserve spots in the final XI. Their success has sparked new hope for Australia’s batting order as they turn their eyes toward the future.
