🔗 Share this article

The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this series will also see the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was announced. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.

Ageing Team Interest Grows

For two or three years there has been mounting fascination with the average age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have almost every player in a Test side 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 disadvantage: a Test team boasting a four-man attack with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

I can’t remember ever being so confident 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 deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have floated into squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Change Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the core four plus Boland have continued backing up. Any team knows that having a group of same-generation players might mean a batch of simultaneous departures, but so far transition has remained theoretical: a process that would certainly be arriving the bend when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, change is here, imposed on this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would likely only miss the opening match, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the team balance experiences a much more significant change with two key bowlers absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision that enables Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a weapon of attack. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the balance of the side. 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 opening bowler.

Newcomer Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an overawed youth, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A packed stadium, partly 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 relaxed. He could be wheeled onto the field on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

Register to our cricket newsletter

It's uncertain, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how rapidly Australia have transitioned from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what further injuries the opening match may bring. Who knows whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how complicated stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of getting injured early in tournaments and a history of initially small injuries becoming extended absences.

Outlook Unclear

The back half of the series may witness the primary four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a excellent pink-ball Brisbane option, but after that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm repaired, and this format is not the place for easing into one’s work. After them lies the true uncertainty, and amid it all opportunity for the opposing side. You can sense that change approaching, rolling round the corner, and England ain’t seen the success since they can't recall when.