🔗 Share this article

The Ashes could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also see the Australian team host more birthday parties than an arcade in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald celebrated his 31st a day before the team was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just before Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Ageing Squad Fascination Grows

For two or three years there has been mounting fascination with the age of this side and particularly the bowling unit. It is rare to have nearly all player near a Test side being over 30, aside from novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that older age was a disadvantage: a Test team featuring a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their professional lives.

I've never felt this sure at the beginning of an away Ashes series | 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 thirties. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a batch of similarly-timed retirements, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a process that would indeed be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, transition is upon them, imposed on this Aussie team in the space of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only sit out the opening match, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, the balance experiences a much more significant change with two players absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control that allows 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 composition of the team. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so successful in Tests coming on after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Confronts Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an intimidated youngster, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A packed stadium, partly English, for the first Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many media stories describe him as laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Register to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this new attack. It might not work out. What is notable is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. It's unclear what further injuries the first Test may cause. Who knows whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how complicated stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of going down early in series and a pattern of minor injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Future Unclear

The back half of the contest may witness the primary four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane choice, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm repaired, and this format is no place for gradually starting one’s work. After 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 England hasn't seen the success since they don’t know when.