Exclusive: How Good is Jake Weatherald? Experts Weigh In Ahead of Ashes 2025

Jake Weatherald has been a player in the making for a decade. The left-hander's selection in the Ashes squad for the first Test in Perth turned heads as it shut the door on Sam Konstas, who had sent Jasprit Bumrah for a leather hunt last summer, but couldn't continue the momentum.

How good a batter is Weatherald, and what took him so long to be in the reckoning for the Baggy Green? 

CONSISTENCY WITH TIME

With 5,322 first-class runs at an average of close to 38, including 13 centuries and 26 fifties, the international call-up could have come earlier, too, but the 31-year-old had taken breaks twice since the pandemic to protect his mental health, before piling runs for Tasmania in the 2024-25 season.

He smashed 904 Sheffield Shield runs in 10 matches at an average of 50.33. "It's very exciting, and I think I had read an article where it said Jake was 10 years in the making to become an overnight success, but what I feel about Jake is that he has now become more consistent," Tom Scollay, a former Middlesex batter and Weatherald's private coach based in Western Australia, told Sportsboom.co.uk.

"He has been in the system over the years, playing for South Australia, Big Bash and now, Tasmania. He will not crumble under pressure. Yes, the nerves will test him, but he has the maturity to handle it. At this stage, you are under the spotlight and scrutiny, and he has prepared himself for that," he added.

TOURING IN THE UK

Weatherald unlocked the key to consistency by touring in English cricket clubs. "He spent time in England playing cricket. I think all this contributed to the consistency. Playing cricket in different conditions helps understand how to score runs," said Scollay, who runs his own cricket clinic, Cricket Mentoring.

After a good season with Barnsley Woolley Miners CC in 2022, where he scored 1800+ runs, including a lethal 270 off 107 balls against Whiston Parish Church, he moved to Norfolk as an overseas professional for Great Witchingham last year. The players went into a trance after witnessing the 82-ball 142 against Frinton.

"He likes doing that to test his game in different conditions. We went to India together in April, and the focus was on playing spin better. He was getting ready to play against Sri Lanka. Over the years, we have chalked out his game plans and looked to work on the mindset," said Scollay, who also works with Josh Phillippe.

Weatherald smashed 54 in the first game against Sri Lanka, and followed up with 183 in the second in Darwin in July. "Before that, we were just getting into a routine and working on a few techniques. He is in Tasmania, and I am in Perth, but we still interact to know what he is working on, what he is struggling with and how he is coping with that".

CAPABLE OF HITTING ARCHER

Scollay reasoned that Weatherald is a far better player of pace than spin, and he can certainly handle Mark Wood and Jofra Archer. "I knew he was in a good place when he took on Lance Morris in the Big Bash League two years ago. It was at the Perth Stadium, and Morris was bowling genuinely fast. Weatherald took him on with hooks and cuts. He is ready to take on Wood and Archer," he said.

It is a coincidence that Weatherald's Big Bash century (115 off 70) for Adelaide Strikers in the final of 2018, which announced his arrival on the big stage, came against a Hobart Hurricanes bowling attack that had Archer in it. George Bailey, the current national selector in Cricket Australia, was the losing captain.

He is mentally tougher now, as he has a private mental performance coach, John Novak, who keeps him in the optimal frame of mind. "Mindset coaching helps cricketers reproduce their best self in mind, body, emotion and spirit, enabling them to repeat their best consistently, particularly in high-pressure matches.

"As with all athletes, including Jake, it's about identifying and tailoring the best mindset scripts for different match situations, using breathwork strategically and creating specific visualisations and affirmations that link to their goals and targets," Novak told this publication.

He is in line for an Ashes debut,  and it remains to be seen if that happens in Perth on Friday.