🔗 Share this article

The historic Ashes series may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also see the Australian team host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald celebrated his thirty-first birthday a day before the team was announced. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.

Older Squad Interest Grows

For a couple of years there has been mounting curiosity with the age of this team and particularly the bowling unit. It is unusual to have nearly all player near a Test side being above thirty, aside from novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a problem: a Test team featuring a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

I've never felt this sure at the beginning of an Ashes tour | a former player

Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the reserve players over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Change Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any team knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of similarly-timed retirements, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet become visible.

Now, suddenly, transition is here, forced upon this Aussie team in the space of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably 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 much more significant shift with two key bowlers missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the side. Boland handling the new ball is nothing new in his first-class career, but he has been so effective in Tests entering the attack after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll likely have to be the opening bowler.

Debutant Faces Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself won’t be an intimidated youngster, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, half of it English, for the opening Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many media stories describe him as laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the field on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

Sign up to our cricket newsletter

Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. It's unclear what further injuries the opening match may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and good to back up after Brisbane, given how complicated stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in tournaments and a history of minor injuries becoming extended absences.

Outlook Unclear

The back half of the contest may see the primary four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great day-night Brisbane option, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, 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 not the place for easing into one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and amid it all opportunity for the visiting team. You can hear that train approaching, rolling round the bend, and England hasn't seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.