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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Australian team celebrate more birthday parties than an arcade in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the team was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Test in Perth. Beau Webster turns 32 just ahead of the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is over.

Ageing Squad Interest Grows

For a couple of years there has been mounting fascination with the age of this team and especially the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player in a Test team being above thirty, except for young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that older age was a problem: a Test squad featuring a four-man attack with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a disadvantage, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

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Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the backup bowlers over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their thirties. Emerging pacemen have floated into squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Transition Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a group of same-generation players might mean a batch of similarly-timed departures, but so far change has remained theoretical: a train that would certainly be arriving the bend when she comes, but one that had not steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, change is upon them, forced upon this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only sit out the opening match, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, the team balance undergoes a far greater shift with two players absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision that allows Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a weapon of attack. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the team. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Tests coming on after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Newcomer Confronts Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself isn't an intimidated youngster, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A packed stadium, half of it English, for the opening Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many media stories portray him as laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be anxious.

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It's uncertain, it might all go smoothly for this new attack. It might not. What is striking is how rapidly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what further injuries the first Test may bring. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for Brisbane, and able to continue after that match, given how complicated stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of getting injured early in series and a pattern of minor injuries becoming extended absences.

Future Unclear

The back half of the contest may witness the main four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a excellent pink-ball Brisbane choice, but beyond that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also hurt and has not yet played a Test. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm repaired, and this level is no place for easing into one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and amid it all opportunity for the visiting team. You can sense that change a-coming, rolling round the corner, and the English team ain’t seen the success since they don’t know when.