The hosts\u2019 stand-in captain, Steve Smith, confirmed his lineup at a press conference at Perth Stadium. Doggett, 31, has excelled for South Australia over recent seasons and will bolster a fast-bowling attack deprived of regular captain Pat Cummins (back), Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott (both hamstring) through injury, while Weatherald, the Tasmania opener, has impressed Smith in the buildup to the series opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched (Weatherald) bat in the nets pretty closely the last few days, and they were pretty tricky nets \u2014 fast, bouncy, a lot of seam,\u201d said Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of courage. He just goes in there; I don\u2019t think he faces any of the side arms, he wants to face bowlers the entire time and the guys were charging in bowling fast. He took it on, was getting in really good positions and goes about it a certain way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited for him. He\u2019s worked hard for a long period of time<\/a> and he\u2019s going to complement \u2018Uzzie\u2019 (Usman Khawaja) pretty well up top.<\/p>\n \u201cInjuries happen in sport, particularly in cricket with fast bowlers, they put a lot of stress through their bodies. It\u2019s unfortunate that those bowlers (Cummins, Hazlewood and Abbott) are out, but it\u2019s an exciting opportunity for Brendan. He\u2019s been on a few tours, he\u2019s very skilful, he\u2019s improved a hell of a lot the last few years, and I\u2019m excited to see him go about his business.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith will be captaining Australia for the first time in an Ashes Test since the second match of the 2021-22 series, when Cummins was absent suffering from Covid. The home side won that game in Adelaide, eventually running out 4-0 series victors.<\/p>\n The 36-year-old batter insisted he is more \u201cchilled\u201d these days, though he did momentarily let loose in his press conference when asked to address recent comments from the former England spinner Monty Panesar, made to online betting company AceOdds earlier this month.<\/p>\n Panesar had urged England\u2019s players to remind Smith of his role as captain in the \u2018Sandpapergate\u2019 ball-tampering scandal of 2018 \u2014 Smith admitted in the immediate aftermath of the controversy that his failures in leadership were responsible for the cheating scandal<\/a> that engulfed his Australia team \u2014 and make him feel \u201cguilty\u201d to be captaining his country once again.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to go off topic for a second here,\u201d said Smith, who has captained Australia 40 times, winning 23 Tests along the way. \u201cWho of you in the room has seen Mastermind and Monty Panesar on that? (Panesar appeared on a celebrity version of the quiz show in 2019.) Any of you?<\/p>\n \u201cFor those of you who have, you\u2019ll understand where I\u2019m coming from, and those of you who haven\u2019t, do yourself a favour because it\u2019s pretty comical. Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany\u2026 that\u2019s a start. Oliver Twist is a season of the year? And America is a city?<\/p>\n \u201cDoesn\u2019t really bother me, those comments, so that\u2019s as far as I\u2019ll go with that one.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith later added: \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot over my journey and the couple of times I\u2019ve stood in for Paddy, I\u2019ve tried to be pretty relaxed and let the game play. Obviously I\u2019ve got to do it my own way out there and have my own style, but I\u2019m a lot more relaxed these days, chilled and let the guys go about their work.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a good couple of weeks actually. A few Sheffield Shield games where I felt really good out in the middle, so I feel in a good place. Hopefully I can take it out in the middle over the next couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n The in-form Marnus Labuschagne will bat at his favoured No 3 berth<\/a> behind Khawaja and Weatherald, with Cameron Green dropping down to No 6. \u201cWhen he\u2019s batting at his best at No 3, it makes us a very, very good cricket side,\u201d Smith said of Labuschagne, who was dropped for the 3-0 series win in the West Indies earlier this year. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t really leave him out after he came back and did exactly what was asked of him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way he\u2019s batted for Queensland has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n England named a 12-man squad for the first Test on Wednesday<\/a> and are expected to confirmed their XI on Thursday, with the selection over an all seam-bowling attack or the inclusion of Shoaib Bashir\u2019s spin the key dilemma. Australia have already made their call, with Nathan Lyon making the cut for Perth.<\/p>\n \u201cNathan has done really well out here,\u201d said Smith. \u201cHe bowls nicely when the wicket\u2019s bouncing, so we\u2019ll see how the game pans out. We\u2019ve got four seam options with Greeny there and then, when we see fit, we\u2019ll bowl the spin. We might lock him in down one end so the quicks can bowl and \u2026 we\u2019ll see how England try to play him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got a good lineup. They\u2019ve got good bowlers for the conditions. They can play how they like. We\u2019ve gone with a spinner. We think you can create good pace, good bounce, and a little bit of purchase out of this wicket. Whether they go with a spinner, I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \n England captain Ben Stokes shakes hands with Steve Smith at Perth Stadium (Saeed Khan\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Smith\u2019s opposite number, Ben Stokes, suggested the Australian was \u201cneck and neck with Joe Root in terms of the greatest batters of this generation\u201d at his own press call. That praise was reciprocated.<\/p>\n \u201c(Stokes) has done a terrific job in England over the last couple of years,\u201d added Smith. \u201cThe style they play suits them, led by him and Baz (coach Brendon McCullum) \u2014 and yeah, he\u2019s potentially someone you don\u2019t want to get too riled up. He\u2019s had a few performances against us where he\u2019s either taken the game away from us or clawed it back, so he\u2019s a quality performer. Whether it\u2019s bat, ball or in the field, he\u2019s always in the game and giving 110 per cent.<\/p>\n \u201cSo yeah, hopefully we can keep him quiet this series.\u201d<\/p>\n Australia XI for first Test in Perth:<\/strong> Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (captain), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett.\n<\/div>\n Australia will hand Brendan Doggett and Jake Weatherald their debuts in the first Ashes Test against England in Perth, starting on Friday. The hosts\u2019 stand-in captain, Steve Smith, confirmed his lineup at a press conference at Perth Stadium. Doggett, 31, has excelled for South Australia over recent seasons and will bolster a fast-bowling attack deprived … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Australia-hand-debuts-to-Doggett-and-Weatherald-Smith-dismisses-Panesar.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10577,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575\/revisions\/10577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2246994300-scaled.jpg\")
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