Jake Weatherald always looked the part. He wasn’t that much older than Sam Konstas when he first turned heads in Australian cricket.
At 22, in the 2016 Sheffield Shield final for South Australia, Weatherald smacked 66 from 61 balls then dug in for 96 from 223 balls. Those innings showcased a dazzling array of shots against an attack that featured Scott Boland, among others.
Jake Weatherald in 2016.Credit: Getty Images
A couple of years later, Weatherald cuffed 115 from 70 balls to help the Adelaide Strikers win the Big Bash League final. Alex Carey and Travis Head batted either side of Weatherald, and based on batting aesthetics it was not straightforward to say who would be playing for Australia next.
Looking back now, 24 hours after his call-up to Australia’s Ashes squad to face England in Perth later this month, Weatherald shakes his head when thinking of how much learning he still had to do, about himself and his game.
“It’s scary to think I was playing first-class cricket then and what I know now about my game and what I think works,” Weatherald tells this masthead. “It’s just the naivety of when you’re young and seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses. You can walk out there and just bat. I look back at that time and think I had no idea what I was doing.
“I was a pretty raw cricketer, still learning about my game. South Australia gave me an opportunity, pushed me forward into the squad probably before I was ready, but I was able to get a few scores and stay in the team. But I look back and think how the hell was I making runs then, because I was so raw. I didn’t know how to construct innings, I was a long way away.”
Weatherald was always obsessive about cricket. As a 10-year-old living in Darwin, he watched just about every ball of the 2005 Ashes, his teacher father Robbie letting him stay up late to do so. As a teen, Weatherald was a boarding student at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, the famous finishing school for the likes of Greg Blewett and the Chappell brothers.
That obsession, though, started to consume him as those early signs of promise gave way to a succession of seasons in which Weatherald, in his own words, “teased and teased” at the possibility of making big runs.
“In sport there’s so much failure and so many opinions about what goes on and so many things you can’t control,” he says. “I was completely consumed by that, and when you go through certain things – I have OCD, and I was obsessed with getting better.
“But I was obsessed with everyone else as well, what everyone else thought. And when you’re already negatively geared, it just didn’t make a great concoction for trying to be a professional athlete and trying to enjoy yourself.”
Jake Weatherald has landed the big fish: a spot in the Test squad.
By the back half of 2020, Weatherald’s now wife Rachel had become concerned by his behaviour. There was a loss of joy and enthusiasm evident in his cricket, but also simple things like sharing a glass of wine or two at home. Weatherald took a break from the game, got help for his mental health and gradually made his way back.
“I wasn’t the best human going around, I didn’t feel that happy about myself,” he says. “And when I was able to explore that through the help from SACA, Jason Gillespie and Jamie Siddons were very supportive at the time, and they were able to give me time to go away and understand myself better.
“When I came back I had perspective on how I could actually compete and deal with the challenges of professional sport. I’ve found that now and I feel like I can deal with anything.
“I’m sure there will be things I come up against if I do play [in the Ashes] that are really hard and I’m going to be super stressed out and stuff like that. But at the end of the day I’ve still got my home, my wife, my dogs, I’ve still got my mates, and I can walk home at night knowing I’ve given it my best crack. I’m secure in that now, and it took me a while to understand that.”
Lessons in batsmanship also came over time. Weatherald was mentored by the likes of Chris Rogers and Mike Hussey, before a move from Adelaide to Hobart. That helped add independence and resilience to his game – in his first season he was largely confined to club and second XI ranks as Tasmania preferred others.
But by the time Weatherald was given the chance to start the 2024-25 season in the Tigers’ first XI, he had absolute clarity about how he was going to play, and what mattered: on sporting Australian wickets, using his arsenal of shots to put pressure on bowlers and turning the odds in his favour.
“When the conditions are nipping and the bowlers are aggressive, while it’s difficult and you might get some good balls early, you also get great opportunities to score, and that’s how I see batting in hard conditions,” he says. “I’m always looking to put pressure back on the bowler, that’s what matters.”
“Bowlers are constantly searching. They’re under pressure to take wickets and for me that’s the way I try to view it now. Five years ago I probably would have thought ‘what a shitstorm this is, I’ve got to walk out against the top bowlers in Australia and try to survive’. Whereas now if I get out I know that my record suggests that over the long run I will find a way to score runs.”
Jake Weatherald with his dog, Ivy.
On Wednesday morning, having made 1391 runs at 53.5 from his past 15 first-class games, Weatherald’s phone rang. It was selection chair George Bailey.
“I tried to play it as cool as possible but I was absolutely screaming in my head,” Weatherald says. “But he said ‘we like the way you go about it, your record suggests you’re going really well, everything’s moving well, we feel as though you can put pressure on the bowlers and we like that, we don’t want you to do anything different, just be ready to go’. He was clear they trust I have the game to hopefully perform.
“Not going to lie, you shit yourself a little bit. I’ve aspired so long to even be considered for Australia and it’s one of those things where you never think it’s going to happen, it’s a pipedream. So then to be announced you’re part of the squad and have players like Steve Smith, Travis and ‘Kez’ [Carey], joining up with them will be an amazing moment.”
Weatherald has noted the commentary about the age of the Australian team, and about the fact he is getting an opportunity at 31, after a decade in the system. He sees the wealth of experience around him, and in his own story, as a power source.
“You look at Sammy [Konstas], he’s come in as a young fella and had the opportunity and some amazing moments, but at the same time everyone has to go away and learn how to get better and mature as a player,” Weatherald says.
“People say the age thing as a negative, whereas I think it shows that to get to where you need to be in Australian cricket, you need to learn those life lessons. The only way to be consistent over a long period is to have a good understanding of yourself.”
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