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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Aussie side celebrate more birthday parties than Timezone in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Test in Perth. Beau Webster turns 32 just ahead of the Brisbane match, 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 before January is out.

Ageing Squad Fascination Builds

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this team and especially the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player in a Test team being over 30, except for 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 boasting a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

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

Transition Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any side knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of simultaneous departures, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a process that would certainly be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, change is upon them, imposed on this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only miss the opening match, was the Cricket Australia assessment, 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 balance undergoes a far greater change with two players missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision that allows Starc’s left-arm speed and movement 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 first-class career, but he has been so effective in Tests coming on after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself won’t be an overawed youth, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A full stadium crowd, half of it English, for the first Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many newspaper profiles describe him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the ground on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

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

Future Uncertain

The back half of the contest may see the main four bowlers back together and all performing 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 next in line and could be a excellent pink-ball Brisbane option, but after that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also hurt and has not yet played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm put back on, and this format is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it opportunity for the opposing side. You can hear that train approaching, coming around the bend, and the English team ain’t seen the success since they don’t know when.