🔗 Share this article

The Ashes could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also see the Aussie side celebrate more birthday parties than an arcade in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day prior to the team was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just before Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Ageing Team Interest Grows

For a couple of years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this side and especially 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 boasting 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.

I can’t remember ever being so confident at the beginning of an away Ashes series | a former player

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

Change Imposed by Setbacks

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

Now, abruptly, change is here, imposed on this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only miss the first Test, was the Cricket Australia assessment, 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 injury, the team balance undergoes a much more significant change with two players absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision that allows Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Missing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the side. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Tests entering the attack after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

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 nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, partly English, for the opening Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many media stories portray him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the field on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Register to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what new injuries the opening match may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after that match, given how complicated stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a track record of going down early in series and a history of minor injuries becoming extended absences.

Outlook Unclear

The latter part of the contest may witness the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition beginning much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly the next option and could be a excellent day-night Brisbane option, but after that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also hurt 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 easing into one’s work. After them lies the true uncertainty, and amid it all opportunity for the visiting team. You can hear that change a-coming, coming around the corner, and England hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.