George Bailey confirms Weatherald as an Ashes probable saying Shield runs would carry more weight ahead of the Ashes.
George Bailey declares Weatherald ‘in the mix’ for Ashes.
Despite not being sent on an Australia A tour of India in September, where Sam Konstas will have the opportunity to improve his game under different circumstances, Jake Weatherald will be “well in the mix” for selection in the forthcoming Ashes series, according to Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey.
Weatherald, 30, opened the batting in Hobart and scored 906 runs at 50.33 last season, including three hundreds, earning him the Sheffield Shield’s top run scorer. In two unofficial Test matches for Australia A against Sri Lanka A last month in Darwin, he supported that with scores of 54 and 183. However, Test incumbent Konstas is travelling with Nathan McSweeney, another Test contender, and Campbell Kellaway, a promising 22-year-old Victoria opener, for the ‘A’ tour of India.
According to Bailey, the Australia A team was chosen with the 2027 Test trip of India in mind, and they anticipate that the circumstances won’t be very relevant to the forthcoming Ashes. In order to return for the start of the Shield season, where Bailey stated that the first three rounds will be “critical” for Ashes selection, Konstas is one of few players who will skip the white-ball portion of the A tour. In Perth, Bailey stated that Weatherald was a player who was definitely in the running to open the batting.
“He’s doing a lot of things right, isn’t he?” Bailey said. “His performance last year was awesome. His performance in the Australia A matches was great, too.
“So that’s the clear message to him, on the back of talking him through the Australia A selections, the clear focus for him is just to continue that and be consistent.
“A lot of selection is potentially being in the right place at the right time. So if he starts the year as he had last year, he’ll be well in the mix.”