Weatherald tips Khawaja return, opens up on Archer duels

Jake Weatherald has given a strong endorsement for Usman Khawaja's return as an opener in the third Ashes Test, with the two-Test talent revealing more details on the Jofra Archer-Steve Smith Gabba duel as well as his own emerging rivalry with England's spearhead.

Weatherald expects a rousing homecoming welcome in Adelaide, the city he cut his teeth in as a Sheffield Shield cricketer before moving to Tasmania two years ago. While he now lives in Hobart, he spends considerable time in the South Australia capital where his wife Rachel still lives and runs her own health business.

But while the 31-year-old has savoured his surprise reunion with Travis Head, with the pair putting on two 75-plus run opening partnerships in three innings, he is not anticipating that the two local lads will necessarily take on the new ball together this week.

Weatherald solidified his spot with a dashing 78-ball 72 in Australia's first innings in Brisbane before standing firm with a fired-up Smith in their small run chase under lights on day four. From four innings, he is averaging 37.

His newcomer status has left him feeling somewhat embarrassed to see Khawaja, with 16 tons from 80 Tests and an average of 44, the subject of selection speculation now he is fit again after back spasms curtailed his involvement in the first Test and ruled him out of the second.

"Uzzie is coming back. I think it's actually underrated how good he is," Weatherald told cricket.com.au's Unplayable Podcast.

"I've only played two Test matches and I've done okay. I've not made hundreds or anything. So to say that it's out of him or Heady to open, it's a bit ridiculous, because I think he (Khawaja) has obviously got the priority.

"He's been there for so long, done so well, so I think it's probably a little bit of propaganda around him not playing, because I think he's a good chance of playing.

"If he does, I'm sure he'll do a great job. For me, if I do get to open with him, it would be different, but at the same time, probably similar to what Heady did, he absorbed a lot and that's something that Uzzie does really well.

"He does rotate the strike really well and he's a very calm, collected character, and he absorbs pressure probably better than most cricketers I've ever seen. From my point of view, I think he'd be great to bat with if I get the opportunity to."

Weatherald admits he was in awe of what he witnessed from the non-striker's end when Archer and Smith went toe-to-toe as Australia ran down their modest victory target of 65 in Brisbane.

The left-hander had already been out twice lbw to England's fastest bowler in his first three innings, and he revealed how another close call might have been the trigger for the ensuing contest that has brought the series to life.

Weatherald admitted he goaded the visitors when they reviewed a not-out decision after Archer struck him on the pads from around the wicket, reminiscent of his first-innings exit to the same bowler.

"They were talking about me kicking them off Jofra, which was probably fair enough," he said. "It just stemmed after the review, I made a comment after that saying, 'waste of a review, that was always going down leg'."

Marnus Labuschagne's dismissal to Gus Atkinson in the next over brought Smith face to face with Archer when the tearaway got the ball again, with England captain Ben Stokes then drawn into a brief exchange with Weatherald.

"I wanted to get amongst it. I couldn't hear anything. I sort of went down there to try to listen," Weatherald said of Archer's war of words with Smith, adding that his overarching concern was not to "say anything stupid" to a batting partner he reveres.

"But it was pretty cool. You watch a guy like Jofra, who's obviously had so much talked about how good he is – and he is very good – and then you get a guy like Steve Smith, who is the best player I've ever seen by a mile.

"The way he went about it was just the opposite of how I'd think about cricket. As I probably showed, I was just trying to get behind it and keep the ball out, whereas he was thinking about, 'How can I finish this game off?'

"It was pretty impressive to see that against a guy that was so high-class.

"The contest just showed it how much it means to everyone. We probably hadn't had that yet out in the middle. It's been very much, 'Just get the job done'.

"That was the first time I could actually hear something going on, and it was pretty cool to be a part of."

Weatherald's own contest with Archer shapes as one of the campaign’s intriguing sub-plots.

The Australian conceded his first brush with the Barbados-born right-armer was a "wake-up call". In Perth, Archer shaped a good length ball away from Weatherald from over the wicket; his first delivery in Test cricket was essentially the typical line of inquiry he had experienced at domestic level, albeit at a higher pace.

"Then he goes full – which you don't really get in first class cricket," said Weatherald of his second ball which saw Archer bring back a devastating inswinger that knocked the left-hander clean off his feet and was shown to be plumb lbw.

"When you've got pace like him, you probably can afford to target the pads a bit more and you might get rewarded. For me that was a bit of a learning curve for people with that pace, just to be a bit more cautious around what they can do. I just haven't really experienced that."

The contest has since been evened up somewhat, with 31 runs coming from the 44 balls Weatherald has since faced off Archer. The extra ball speed of him and the rest of the England attack has helped a batter who scores heavily square of the wicket.  

Weatherald’s exit to Archer while he was set in Brisbane will nonetheless have England sensing the match-up remains a good one for them.

Weatherald had gotten the better of Archer in his only previous encounters with him during the latter's stint with the Hobart Hurricanes through BBL|07 and 08 (the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons).

The then Adelaide Strikers opener blasted him for two fours and a six in his match-winning 2017-18 final century, incidentally played at Adelaide Oval. In three encounters that season, Weatherald scored 31 off the 23 deliveries Archer bowled to him.

"I didn't know much about him when he played the BBL, so you just see and react," said Weatherald. "BBL cricket sort of allows you to get out doing dumb things so I just walked into those games thinking about to trying to smack him.

"Then when you play a Test match, you set up for a day, you set up for, 'How can I put this guy through three or four spells?'

"I got a pretty good wake-up call our first innings (in Perth) about how much different it is to play someone of his quality and his pace. I learnt pretty quickly.

"Then the next innings a similar thing happened but I was a lot happier with the way I felt about batting against him. He's obviously high class, and he's going to bowl good balls.

"I've got to accept that as an opener and not let that make me feel as though that I'm not good enough to compete. Because for 90 per cent of it, I'm competing well."

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (third Test only): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue