🔗 Share this article

The historic Ashes series could provide one cause for celebration, but this contest will also witness the Australian team celebrate more birthday parties than an arcade in the 90s. New boy Jake Weatherald celebrated his 31st a day prior to the team was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Ageing Squad Fascination Grows

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this side and particularly the bowling unit. It is rare to have almost every player near a Test side being over 30, except for young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a disadvantage: a Test team featuring a four-man attack with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

I can’t remember ever being so confident at the beginning of an Ashes tour | Mark Ramprakash

Perhaps what really highlighted the talking point is that the reserve players over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their 30s. Younger bowlers have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Transition Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the core four plus Boland have continued performing. Any team knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a batch of similarly-timed departures, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, transition is upon them, forced upon this Aussie team in the space of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would likely only miss the first Test, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the team balance experiences a far greater change with two key bowlers absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a weapon of attack. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift in the balance of the side. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his domestic career, but he has been so successful in Test matches coming on after seven to eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Confronts Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an overawed youth, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, 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 newspaper profiles describe him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Register to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what further injuries the opening match may cause. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after Brisbane, given how complicated stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in series and a history of initially small injuries becoming extended absences.

Outlook Unclear

The back half of the series may witness the main four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might experience transition setting in much earlier than the stretch goal of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane option, but beyond that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test match. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm repaired, and this level is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the opposing side. You can sense that change approaching, rolling round the corner, and England hasn't seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.