When it comes to selection, Australia pay more attention to domestic performances than their English counterparts.
Labuschagne’s form demanded a recall, while uncapped Jake Weatherald was the leading run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield last season.
If the left-hander gets the nod in Perth, he will be Khawaja’s sixth different opening partner since David Warner retired in January 2024.
Facing Jofra Archer and co at Optus Stadium would be far removed from last year’s stint with Great Witchingham in the East Anglia Premier League, where Weatherald was a team-mate of Monty Panesar.
As confirmed last month, there is a Pat Cummins-shaped hole in the Australia attack. Cummins may return for the second Test, and for now Scott Boland is a capable fill-in with an outstanding record in Australia.
As back-ups, Sean Abbott has almost 60 caps in white-ball cricket and Brendan Doggett is an experienced Sheffield Shield standout.
In terms of selection, Australia have more questions to answer than England, yet remain favourites to retain the urn. Just six of England’s squad have previously played a Test in Australia and the touring party of 16 has one Test hundred down under between them, belonging to Stokes. Only the captain and Mark Wood have laced up their bowling boots in Australia before.
England’s collective inexperience in Australian conditions will fuel questions over their limited preparation time. They play one red-ball three-day warm-up match, against an England Lions team at Lilac Hill, from next Wednesday.
Veterans of Ashes tours past are aghast, though critics have perhaps not been paying enough attention to England’s away trips under Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
Since the captain and head coach took charge in 2022, tour preparations have been scaled back to one or no warm-up matches. England have won the first Test on all five of their overseas tours under Stokes, including all-timers against Pakistan in Rawalpindi and India in Hyderabad.
It is reasonable to want to keep the same method for this tour – they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
In any case, extended preparation does not guarantee success. England’s triumph in 2010-11, when they won three warm-up matches before beating Australia 3-1, is held up as an example, but is also an outlier.
On plenty of other tours England have played warm-ups until the kangaroos come home and been subsequently hammered in the Tests.
If England can control their preparation, they cannot control the rough ride they will get from the Australian press, which began with The West Australian labelling Stokes “Cocky Captain Complainer”.
The jibes are unlikely to unsettle someone as thick-skinned as Stokes, and England will know the press can quickly turn on the home side if England get on top.
Therein lies the rub. For all the talk of selection and preparation, judgement will come through results and the identity of the captain holding the urn in Sydney in January.
It is the unpredictable nature of this series that fuels the excitement – a compelling case can be made for so many different scorelines. The uncertainty is glorious and will remain until 21 November, after which we will know a little more than we know now.
Until then, enjoy the hype.
