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The Ashes may offer a reason to cheer, but this contest will also witness the Australian team host a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Test in Perth. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Ageing Squad Fascination Builds

For two or three years there has been growing curiosity with the average age of this side and especially the bowling unit. It is unusual to have almost every player in a Test side being above thirty, except for novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that greater age was a problem: a Test squad featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is hardly a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

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Perhaps what most amplified 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 squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the core four plus Boland have continued backing up. Any side knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a group of simultaneous retirements, but so far transition has remained theoretical: a process that would certainly be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet become visible.

Now, suddenly, transition is upon them, imposed on this Australian squad in the space of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably only miss the opening match, 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 gone down with a hamstring injury, the team balance experiences a far greater shift with two key bowlers missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision 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 balance of the team. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Test matches coming on after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Debutant 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 opening Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many newspaper profiles portray him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the field on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

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Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this new attack. It might not work out. What is striking 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 new injuries the first Test may bring. Who knows 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. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in series and a pattern of initially small injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Future Uncertain

The latter part of the contest may see the main four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might experience transition beginning much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line 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 never played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this format is no place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it a chance for the visiting team. You can hear that train a-coming, coming around the corner, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.