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The historic Ashes series could provide a reason to cheer, but this contest will also see the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the 90s. New boy Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day prior to the team was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Test in Perth. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Older Squad Interest Grows

For two or three years there has been growing curiosity with the average age of this team and especially the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player near a Test side being above thirty, except for young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that greater age was a problem: a Test team featuring a four-bowler lineup with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

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

Perhaps what really highlighted the talking point is that the backup bowlers over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their thirties. Younger bowlers have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Transition Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on backing up. Any side knows that having a batch of similarly-aged players might mean a group of similarly-timed retirements, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that had not steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, change is here, imposed on this Aussie team in the space of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably only miss the opening match, was the team management view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring injury, the balance experiences a far greater change with two key bowlers absent rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a attacking option. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the team. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Test matches entering the attack after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the opening bowler.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself won’t be an intimidated youngster, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A packed stadium, half of it English, for the first Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many media stories describe him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the ground on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

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It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. It's unclear what new injuries the first Test may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after that match, given how complicated stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a track record of going down early in series and a pattern of initially small injuries becoming longer layoffs.

Future Unclear

The latter part of the contest may witness the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is apparently next in line and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane option, but after that with choices uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm repaired, and this format is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can hear that change a-coming, coming around the corner, and the English team hasn't seen the success since they don’t know when.