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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also see the Australian team host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day prior to the squad was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of 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 over.

Older Team Fascination 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 nearly all player near a Test side being over 30, aside from novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a problem: a Test team featuring a four-man attack with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a disadvantage, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their professional lives.

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Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the backup bowlers over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Change Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any team knows that having a batch of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of similarly-timed departures, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a process that would certainly be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, change is upon them, forced upon this Aussie team in the span of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only sit out the first Test, was the team management view, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring injury, the team balance undergoes a much more significant change with two players absent rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the stability and precision 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 side. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Test matches entering the attack after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely 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, partly 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 wheeled onto the field on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

Register to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this new attack. It might not work out. What is notable is how rapidly Australia have transitioned from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what new injuries the first Test may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after Brisbane, given how complicated stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of going down early in series and a history of minor injuries becoming extended absences.

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the contest may see the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might experience transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane choice, but beyond that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this level is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the opposing side. You can hear that change approaching, rolling round the bend, and the English team hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.