A week is a long time in politics. It has also proved a long time in Australian cricket and the career of Jake Weatherald.
After the nature of the defeat against Bangladesh, it was hard to see how Australia's selectors could avoid making a response, even though coach Andrew McDonald spoke about not making decisions based on emotions while the selection panel as a whole has always wanted to show loyalty.
They had, in effect, done so with Weatherald during the off-season, handing him a Cricket Australia contract, which, they are always keen to stress, does not guarantee selection, after a debut Ashes series where he finished with an average in the low 20s. "We liked what we saw," chair of selectors George Bailey said when the squad to face Bangladesh was announced.
When Weatherald was speaking ahead of the Darwin Test, which was a significant homecoming for the left-hander who had watched the Australians as a child in 2003 and been inspired to becoming a Test cricketer, there was an assumption that he would at least have these two matches to strength his claims to go to South Africa.
Things were going to have to go very badly for that to change. And that's what happened.
While a selection call felt inevitable in the aftermath of Bangladesh's nine-wicket win, until Tuesday lunchtime it was hard to know which way it would fall. The selectors themselves hadn't made up their minds until late Monday. There was a thought that patience could have run out with Marnus Labuschagne after scores of 1 and 31, but he lives to fight another day barring a left-field final XI for the second Test in Mackay. He faces a critical Test.
Instead, it was Weatherald who paid the price, and Australia's revolving door of openers will keep spinning. Steven Smith, Nathan McSweeney, Sam Konstas, Labuschagne himself and now Weatherald have all come and gone from the role since David Warner's retirement in early 2024.
Weatherald is 31, so it's not impossible that he can earn another go; but it feels like a tough road back. His call-up came on the back of a 2024-25 Sheffield Shield season where he averaged 50.33, so it's difficult to know how the selectors would judge things even if he were able to repeat that.
Since the Ashes, which included a stint with Leicestershire during the off-season, Weatherald made some technical changes to try and avoid falling over as he much as he had against England, whose one of few successes was regularly trapping him in front. Therefore, perhaps it was inevitable that his first dismissal back in Test cricket would be edging a drive to a wide ball. The second-innings drag-on against Bangladesh ultimately sealed his fate, although it was also the shot of an opener who had fielded for 138 overs.
And so, barring any really funky calls over the final XI, it's to Matt Renshaw the selectors have turned. Now 30, there is a sense that he has entered into the sweet spot of his career. He made three centuries last season and averaged 49.90 in the last Sheffield Shield season, although as recent evidence shows, that is no guarantee of success for Australia. But the signs in white-ball cricket have been encouraging, not least in being able to absorb the pressure of the top level.
It's not the first time that a calamity has given Renshaw his chance. For this change of opener there won't be a cap presentation alongside it. Renshaw's first call-up came when there was a far more dramatic overhaul following the innings defeat against South Africa in Hobart in 2016-17. In his fourth Test, he made 184 against Pakistan at the SCG, and at the end of that summer, was averaging 63. Life proved tougher on the subcontinent, and after six Tests against India and Bangladesh, he was dropped.
Renshaw was recalled in the fallout to the ball-tampering scandal for the Johannesburg Test in 2018, but then did not play again until briefly being selected as a middle-order option in early 2023.
Renshaw, an experienced player who has been there before, completes a full range of options Australia have tried at the top: Smith was the world-class player who gave it a go, McSweeney a somewhat square-peg and round-hole solution, Konstas the fearless youngster with no baggage, Labuschagne the stop-gap on a loyalty ticket, and Weatherald the senior pro whose domestic form was rewarded.
Amid all this, Australia had an opener score more 600 runs in their previous series. Travis Head was spectacular in the Ashes after being promoted when Usman Khawaja was injured in Perth. But after one modest Test - and Hasan Mahmud deserves huge credit for his accuracy against him - the discussion about using Head at the top has already begun, with Matthew Hayden saying he should move to No. 3.
A lot has happened in a week.