It couldn’t have felt more like a homecoming in that moment. There was Jake Weatherald having his first net as a Test cricketer in Darwin, the city of his birth and his childhood. Three days out from becoming the first Darwin-born Test cricketer to play a Test match in Darwin. And in the adjoining net, his former housemate Justin Galeotti, sat on top of the heavy roller making sure the few divots on the pitch were being sorted out. The two didn’t communicate and barely even made eye contact. They instead stuck to their respective tasks diligently. Weatherald tackling some throwdowns and the local spinners from his relatively different upright stance at the crease. While Galeotti carefully manoeuvred the roller over the 22 yards that had led to a bit of consternation amongst the Aussie batters previously.
The two had shared a house in Hobart during Weatherald’s time playing for Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield and also donned the colours of Darwin CC as teammates last year. For the record, Galeotti, who is part of the ground-staff at Marrara Oval, has currently taken the local league by storm having smashed three centuries on the trot for Southern Districts, motivated greatly by the rise of his great mate.
Here they were though preparing for a Test match in a city they’ve both called home at different stages of their lives. The burden of familiarity, not that it’s felt like that for Weatherald who loves being back here, has meant that Australia’s new opener has been central to the build-up for the return of Test cricket to the Northern Territory. From taking his teammates fishing to ferrying around Taskin Ahmed in a boat after posing with him alongside Alex Carey at the very scenic East Point Beach. When he’s not been playing brand ambassador to the city of Darwin and this unique part of the country. And his beloved “territorians” as he refers to them. He’s even found time to duck out and see Galeotti smash the third of his troika of centuries.
Alex Carey (left), Taskin Ahmed (middle) and Jake Weatherald (right) ©Getty
While Weatherald soaks in the nostalgia and the home comforts, this couldn’t be a more unfamiliar setting for the rest of his team, most of them anyway, to embark on an incredibly arduous 12-month ride. One where they will play 20 Tests, potentially 21, between August 13, 2026, and August 2, 2027. A period in which they will travel approximately 87,318 km by flight and by road and play in 16 different venues across four different countries. It’ll also be a phase that will in all likelihood define the legacy of the Pat Cummins era of Australian Test cricket.
For their unfamiliarity with the terrain, it also does feel apt in a way though that they are kicking off their potentially career-defining run from Australia’s frontier country. Because they’ll need all the frontier spirit that can be mustered to overcome three of the biggest obstacle courses in Test cricket. To win a series in South Africa, India and England.
Just to emphasise how far away we are from the more populous eastern, western and southern coasts, it takes you a minimum of four hours to fly to the Top End from wherever you are in the country. Even Brisbane’s nearly a 3-hour flight from here. So much so that it’s got its own climate in terms of being hot and humid throughout the year, except during the wild wet season. And the people here, many of whom have moved from different parts of the country, take great pride in the singularity of their territory, even the multiple boards around the coast with “Crocodile Warnings”.
“Darwin is where you’ll find the mythical version of Australia that everyone always raves about. But there is also a change coming through, where a lot of people here finally want to put our great city on the map,” says one local, who’s called Darwin home for 42 years.
It kind of resonates with what Cummins and his crew are setting out to do as well, with a slight twist. To put themselves on the map which only houses the most mythical Australian Test teams of all time.
Marrara Cricket Ground in Darwin ©Getty
To achieve that would require winning as many of the three big away series as possible, while making sure that they see off Bangladesh this month and do the same with the high-flying Kiwis come the actual summer of cricket. Not to forget the 150th anniversary special Test against England under lights in March.
It’s quite something to think that winning a Test series in either India or England is as unfamiliar a feeling for an Australian team as it has been since 2004. In that time, South Africa and New Zealand have both won series in both India and England. While England themselves have won series in India and Australia.
The last time Australia won in South Africa by the way was 2013-14 though they’ve made only one Test tour there ever since. While they have retained the Ashes on back-to-back tours to England in the last seven years, the series-win drought goes back to 2001, when Steve Waugh’s team were at their ultimate peak, even if they had failed to breach what he famously called the Final Frontier in India.
And here are a seasoned Australian team with a lot of experience in their ranks on the cusp of going even further than their celebrated predecessors did at their prime. Their biggest strength being the familiarity within the dressing-room that breeds both content and context to what lies ahead.
It’s a full-strength team chosen from a full-strength squad that will take on Bangladesh in their first Test on Australian soil in 23 years come Thursday. There has been a bit of criticism around the selectors’ decision to not try out any future prospects in this two-match series, even if only in the reserves. But with this team’s long-term goal of somehow conquering the two elusive prizes on what will be their last go-around as a core collective being within the space of 12 months, it probably makes sense for the selectors to have thrown all their mature eggs into the same basket. Almost to say it’s now or never, and since they’ve come this close to giving it a final thrust, it makes sense that they’ve stuck with their familiar setup, even if it means Cameron Green is the only player under the age of 30.
You’d expect Cummins, Head and Labuschagne to potentially get another chance to do the circuit in four years’ time. This should be it though for Smith, Starc, Lyon and Hazlewood as the Australian Test team that has stuck together for so long finally begins to feel a bit unfamiliar, like the city that it flags off its wild campaign from.
