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The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this contest will also see the Australian team host a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day before the squad was announced. 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 the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is out.

Ageing Team Interest 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 rare to have almost every player near a Test team being over 30, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a problem: a Test team boasting a four-man attack with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a disadvantage, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

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Perhaps what most amplified the talking point is that the reserve players over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their thirties. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Change Forced by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any team knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a batch of simultaneous departures, but so far transition has remained theoretical: a process that would indeed be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, change is here, forced upon this Australian squad in the span of a short period. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only sit out the first Test, was the team management view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the balance experiences a much more significant shift with two players missing 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. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the side. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Tests coming on after seven to eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Debutant Confronts Pressure

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 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 describe him as relaxed. He could be wheeled onto the field on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Sign up to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what further injuries the first Test may cause. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for Brisbane, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how complicated stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of going down early in tournaments and a history of initially small injuries turning into extended absences.

Future Unclear

The latter part of the contest may see the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might experience transition beginning much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great day-night Brisbane choice, but beyond that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test match. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this level is no place for easing into one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and amid it all opportunity for the visiting team. You can hear that train a-coming, coming around the bend, and the English team ain’t seen the success since they don’t know when.