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Ashes 2025: Opener Jake Weatherald, along with pacer Brendan Doggett, will be making their Test debut for the hosts in the series opener in Perth. Australia has tried to bring stability to their top and middle order and has snubbed Beau Webster to fix their batting lineup. Weatherald will be opening the innings along with Usman Khawaja, and Marnus Labuschagne will bat at the No.3 position after giving the Test series against West Indies a miss.

With Labuschagne back in the side, Cameron Green will bat at the No.6 position, and that has led the selectors to retain him as a bowler since there was no place for Webster, who had played in seven Test matches after performing well in his debut Test series against India.

Doggett will be replacing Josh Hazlewood, who was ruled out owing to a hamstring injury, but the hosts have been trying to promote Labuschagne as the top specialist opener. Hailing from the Northern Territory, Weatherald will be opening the innings along with Khawaja and will be his sixth opening partner since January last year.

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Weatherald's promotion means that Webster will be dropped despite performing for the team in this format this year. Stand-in skipper Steve Smith will be revealing the playing XI in the pre-match press conference on Thursday.

This is the first time after Kurtis Patterson and Jhye Richardson's debut against Sri Lanka in 2019 that the host will be including two debutants in a Test match.

Labuschagne will be returning to the side on the back of a brilliant performance for Queensland, whereas Green will once again bat at the No.6 position, temporarily moving up the order after his return from a back injury. He only recently started bowling again, as earlier he was playing as a batter in this format, but is still seen as a long-term No.4 batter after Steve Smith retires from the longest format.

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At the same time, the Ben Stokes-led team has revealed their 12-man team for the 1st Test, where both Jofra Archer and Mark Wood will try to take advantage of the bouncy pitch in Perth. Skipper Ben Stokes will be attending the press conference on Thursday.

Australia XI: Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (capt), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett.

England 12-man squad: Ben Stokes (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Mark Wood.

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