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The Ashes could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also witness the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day before the team was announced. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just ahead of the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Older Squad Fascination Builds

For two or three years there has been mounting fascination with the average age of this team and particularly the bowling unit. It is rare to have almost every player near a Test side being above thirty, 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 squad featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

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 well into their thirties. Younger bowlers have floated into teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any team knows that having a batch of similarly-aged players might mean a group of similarly-timed retirements, but so far change has remained theoretical: a process that would certainly be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, suddenly, change is upon them, imposed on this Aussie team in the span of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only sit out the first Test, 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 gone down with a hamstring injury, the balance undergoes a much more significant change with two players missing rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a weapon of attack. Missing 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 effective in Tests entering the attack after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself isn't an overawed youth, 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 newspaper profiles portray him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the field on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Register to The Spin

It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how quickly Australia have moved from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, and others. It's unclear what new injuries the first Test may bring. Who knows whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how tricky stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in tournaments and a pattern of initially small injuries turning into extended absences.

Future Unclear

The latter part of the contest may witness the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might experience transition beginning much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly the next option and could be a excellent pink-ball Brisbane choice, 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 match. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this level is no place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it opportunity for the opposing side. You can hear that train approaching, rolling round the corner, and the English team ain’t seen the success since they can't recall when.