🔗 Share this article

The Ashes may offer a reason to cheer, but this contest will also see the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was named. Nathan Lyon turns 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 turns 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Older Squad Fascination Builds

For two or three years there has been mounting curiosity with the average age of this team and especially the bowling unit. It is rare to have nearly all player near a Test team being over 30, except for young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a problem: a Test squad featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

I've never felt this sure at the start of an Ashes tour | Mark Ramprakash

Perhaps what most amplified the talking point is that the backup bowlers over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their 30s. Younger bowlers have floated into teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any side knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a group of simultaneous departures, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a process that would certainly be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, abruptly, transition is upon them, forced upon this Aussie team in the space of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably only miss the first Test, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring strain, the balance experiences a far greater change with two key bowlers missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control that allows Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Missing both of them means a major adjustment in the balance of the team. Boland handling the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Test matches coming on after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Newcomer Faces Expectations

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 first Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many newspaper profiles portray him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the field on a sun lounger and still be anxious.

Sign up to The Spin

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

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the contest may see the main four bowlers reunited 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 next in line and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane choice, but after that with choices uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also hurt and has never played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm repaired, and this format is no place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it opportunity for the visiting team. You can hear that train a-coming, coming around the bend, and the English team ain’t seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.