Key players, such as pacer Mitchell Starc, are hitting form at the right time, while star batter Steve Smith is facing early setbacks in his preparations.
Konstas, 20, misses out after a poor tour with the bat in the West Indies, while Weatherald has been included after topping the Sheffield Shield runs list
Starc's last outing in the IPL was with Royal Challengers Bangalore, the only he has represented in the competition till date.
Images from Day 1 of the 'Pink-ball' second Test between Australia and India in Adelaide on Friday.
The Capitals sit pretty at the top with 10 points from six games, while the Titans trail close behind with eight from as many outings.
Travis Head said he was loving life as a Test opener after recording his third century of the Ashes series to help put Australia in a strong position after day three of the fifth Test on Tuesday.
All-rounder Cameron Green will miss the three-match ODI series against India due to side soreness.
England Captain Ben Stokes was involved in a heated on-field exchange with Australia's No.3 Marnus Labuschagne, an incident that drew strong reactions from former players in the commentary box.
'Mitchell Starc is a superstar, don't think of him from investment standpoint'
Triumphant Australia will bid farewell to Usman Khawaja as England look to recover another few scraps of pride when the Ashes series comes to a conclusion with the fifth Test in Sydney from Sunday.
India great Virat Kohli continued his push to regain his place as the best ODI batter while moving up to the second spot in the latest ICC rankings released on Wednesday.
Steve Smith returns to action in the Boxing Day Test against England as Australia opted to include four fast bowlers in their 12-man squad.
'Who is the IPL's best bowler? His name is Jasprit Bumrah. He gets Rs 12 crore and Starc almost 25. That's wrong.'
Richardson has, so far, played three Test matches since making his debut in 2018-19. The pacer has picked up 11 wickets at an average of 22.09.
Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad said the second Ashes Test starting Thursday next week will be a lottery and the toss is a key factor in Brisbane with the pink ball.
England flirted with a comeback for the ages on Sunday, with Will Jacks, Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse putting up brave stands, but Australia's Mitchell Starc took three wickets to end the resistance.
Earlier this week, the duo arrived in Perth with the first batch of the team and practised relentlessly in the nets.
"Bowlers were going to be a hot property," says De Villiers on Starc's historic bid
Marco Jansen smashed the records held by legends Matthew Hayden and Vivian Richards for the most sixes hit by an overseas batter in a Test innings in India.
Once DC and MI backed out, Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders commenced an even more intense battle, crossing the record Rs 20.50 crore (Rs 205 million) spent by Sunrisers Hyderabad on Pat Cummins a little earlier.
Pacer Mitchell Starc was adjudged player of the match for his sensational bowling up front when he claimed the scalps of Travis Head, Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed in the powerplay.
Australia overwhelmed the West Indies by 133 runs in the second Test in Grenada on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with one match remaining.
Cameron Green and Alex Carey guided Australia to an emphatic five-wicket victory against England, to claim the series 4-1, on Day 5 of the fifth Ashes Test on Thursday.
Cameron Green is shaping up as one of the hottest picks of the upcoming auction.
As the ball was about to drop down in no man's land, Starc sprinted to his left from long-off and slid to complete a fine two-handed catch.
Travis Head proved England's nemesis once again as he scored his second century of the Ashes to carry Australia toward a seemingly inevitable series triumph on day three at Adelaide Oval on Friday.
'Four games don't make him a bad bowler'
Mitchell Starc has not lived up to his astronomical price tag so far in the IPL but Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Bharat Arun on Tuesday backed the Australia left-arm pacer, saying it's just a "matter of time" before he hits his stride.
Spinner Todd Murphy has been called into the Australia squad in place of the injured Nathan Lyon for this week's fourth Ashes Test, while captain Pat Cummins will skip the rest of the series as his back issue is managed.
Less than two weeks after being dismissed as a "dud" Down Under, Joe Root finally shrugged the monkey off his back with a first Test century in Australia on Thursday to breathe life into England's Ashes campaign.
'Dad played the biggest role in my cricket, coached me all the way through and sort of let me go as I got into my older teenage years, but (he) would always shoot a message (like) 'put the reverse sweep away'.'
Cameron Green is tipped to surpass fellow-Australian Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore) and command the highest price by an overseas player but he won't take home more than Rs 18 crore.
Bazball is in the firing line, with former players and pundits decrying the high-risk game on Australia's spicy pitches.
Australia batter Matthew Short believes his team's pacers will continue to exploit Virat Kohli's recent weakness outside off stump when India face Australia in the second ODI, in Adelaide, on Thursday.
With skipper Pat Cummins already out of the series opener because of a back injury, Australia are expected to send out Hazlewood with Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland as their pace attack.
A versatile and dynamic Australian unit, without key pacer Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who is likely to miss the early stages of the tournament, will be going into the T20 World Cup with hopes of going deep in the tournament.
Shaheen's numbers continue to underline his impact.
KKR's Mitchell Starc rose to the occasion in the biggest game of the season.
'I think there was a fair bit of good bowling today. Obviously there was enough in the wicket and it probably felt like it was a hardball wicket.'
Joe Root and Harry Brook hit half-centuries to put England in control before bad light ended play early on the opening day of the fifth Ashes Test.
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