Everywhere you go this week in Darwin you will see Jake Weatherald look-alikes.
The original is unmistakable. The shaved head, the hooped earrings, the full sleeve of tattoos on his right arm, the idiosyncratic gait. He is one of a kind.
His mates from Darwin, and proud Territorians who feel close to him by association, are set to don fake bald caps, beards, and sleeve tattoos to honour him during the first Test against Bangladesh this week, with two men starting early by dressing as him and asking questions at a press conference on Monday, three days out from Thursday’s start.
But Weatherald is hoping to look slightly different at the crease when he opens the batting against Bangladesh after an Ashes series where his set-up got exposed by full balls darting in at high pace.
“There’s been a few tinkerings,” Weatherald said. “Hopefully, someone sees it. It feels like I’m completely different, but everyone says I’m still pretty similar, which is sort of what I wanted a little bit. I didn’t want to change anything dramatically.
“I was trying to understand what I was really good at and what I do well in first-class cricket and what I could improve on, and I did well on the Ashes, and [have been working on] what I could slightly adjust to make a better game plan overall. And I think I’ve done that. So I’m pretty pumped to go out and show it hopefully.”
A change was noticeable on Monday as he faced Australia’s quicks in a centre-wicket net on Marrara’s second ground which hosted the Bangladesh tour match over the weekend. Having played well to post a half-century in a practice match against the same quicks in Brisbane last week during Australia’s pre-tour camp, Weatherald looked like he was trying to stand a little taller at the crease to get back towards the set-up he had in the 2018 BBL final where he carved Jofra Archer to all parts of Adelaide Oval. That old version of Weatherald had a high ceiling and a low floor in terms of output in domestic cricket.
When he moved to Tasmania he developed a much more crouched stance that he stuck with through the Ashes. It had helped him pile up runs more consistently in Sheffield Shield cricket where sub-130kph seamers have dominated by attacking top-order batters full on a fourth-stump line. Weatherald’s low position, with his head outside off, helped him counter that line of attack with one of the highest Shield averages to that line of bowling, thanks to powerful cover drives with his head over the ball and cut shots to balls only fractionally short. His best Test innings of 72 in Brisbane last summer was full of such strokes. Full, straight balls at 130kph didn’t trouble him in Shield cricket with time to adjust around his front pad. But at 135kph-plus in the Ashes they did. Archer (twice), Brydon Carse and Ben Stokes pinned him lbw four times out of nine in the series with similar deliveries.