🔗 Share this article

The historic Ashes series may offer a reason to cheer, but this contest will also see the Australian team host more birthday parties than Timezone in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day prior to the team was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Test in Perth. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is over.

Ageing Squad Fascination Builds

For a couple of years there has been mounting fascination with the age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have almost every player in a Test team being above thirty, aside from novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that older age was a disadvantage: a Test team boasting a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are deep into their professional lives.

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

Perhaps what most amplified the talking point is that the backup bowlers over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Younger bowlers have briefly joined teams – 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 continued performing. Any side knows that having a group of same-generation players might mean a batch of simultaneous departures, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, abruptly, transition is here, forced upon this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only sit out the opening match, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, the balance undergoes a far greater change with two key bowlers missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a weapon of attack. Missing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the team. Boland handling the new ball is nothing new in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Tests coming on after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Debutant Faces Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an intimidated youngster, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, partly English, for the opening Test of a eagerly awaited 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 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. 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 fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of going down early in tournaments and a history of minor injuries becoming extended absences.

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the series may witness the main four bowlers reunited and all going well. Or it might experience transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a great day-night Brisbane choice, but after that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test match. 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 true uncertainty, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that change a-coming, rolling round the corner, and the English team hasn't seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.