Cummins captaincy the only unknown in squad as jigsaw clicks into place

In the end, there were few surprises.

- Geoff Lemon Sydney

Even the most foregone conclusion of an Ashes squad will still create weeks of speculation one way or another, but answering one question at the top of the order has knocked over the other unresolved ones, tipping like dominoes as we make our way down the list.

Barring injury, the only new player in the eventual XI will be Jake Weatherald, the 31-year-old Northern Territorian who in cricketing terms became a South Australian and then a Tasmanian, earning his place over several seasons of unflashy consistency and a willingness to counterattack. Weatherald would not have made the squad if he were not going to open the batting, which means that Marnus Labuschagne, who was always going to make the team one way or another after getting his run-scoring groove back, will bat at No 3 rather than moonlighting at the top.

Labuschagne at three means that there is room for only one of Cameron Green or Beau Webster at six. Green, if he can prove he is over some side soreness in the upcoming Sheffield Shield game, wins that contest by a margin of two Test hundreds, 15km/h of bowling speed, and five years of being an unfinished Cricket Australia lab project to engineer the ultimate cricket specimen.