Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has revealed his well-thought-out preferred XI for Australia’s first Test against England in the coming Ashes series, starting on November 21. Ponting backed Jake Weatherald for a Test debut as opener and also favoured Brendan Doggett to join the pace attack.

Notably, Australia’s build-up to the Ashes opener has been disrupted by huge injury concerns. Captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are unavailable for the first Test due to their respective injuries. Moreover, Australia's backup pacer Sean Abbott has also been ruled out.

"I feel that Australia's best team has Jake Weatherald opening the batting along with (Usman) Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne at three. He’s (Labuschagne) done absolutely everything that's been asked of him over the last month, scoring hundreds at will, coming back into the side at No.3. Steve Smith (at) four, Travis Head (at) five, Cameron Green (at) six, Carey (at) seven. With (Scott) Boland, (Mitchell) Starc, probably Doggett gets the nod ahead of Michael Neser and Nathan Lyon, who was always going to play anyway, I think that will be Australia's team,” Ponting said on The ICC Review.

Pointing out the latest injury concerns, Ponting stated that if he had been asked to pick the playing XI a week ago, it would have been incredibly different.

"If you had asked me this (to pick the XI) a week ago, my thoughts might have been slightly different. So a week ago, I felt that they were going to play Jake Weatherald as the opener and Labuschagne at No.3 and that Doggett would probably just come in, Boland comes in the absence of Pat Cummins. But now things could be different," Ponting stated.

"Do they now think that they might need some more bowling cover as far as the all-rounders are concerned? Do they now think they might need Beau Webster to be in that side as well," Ponting said.

Ricky Ponting playing XI: Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Scott Boland, Mitchell Starc, Brendan Doggett, Nathan Lyon