🔗 Share this article

The Ashes could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also see the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was announced. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Test in Perth. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is over.

Older Squad Interest Builds

For a couple of years there has been growing curiosity with the average age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player near a Test team being over 30, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that older age was a problem: a Test team featuring a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

I've never felt this sure at the beginning of an away Ashes series | Mark Ramprakash

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

Transition Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any side knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a group of similarly-timed retirements, but so far transition has remained theoretical: a process that would indeed be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, change is upon them, forced upon this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only sit out the first Test, was the team management assessment, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring strain, the team balance undergoes a far greater change with two players missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the balance and control that allows Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a attacking option. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the team. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his domestic career, but he has been so successful in Test matches coming on after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Faces Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself won’t be an intimidated youngster, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-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 easy debut, no matter how many newspaper profiles portray him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the ground on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

Sign up to our cricket newsletter

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 surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what new injuries the opening match may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and good to back up after that match, given how complicated stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of going down early in tournaments and a history of initially small injuries becoming extended absences.

Future Unclear

The latter part of the series may see the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition beginning much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a excellent pink-ball Brisbane option, but after that with choices uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also hurt and has never played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this format is no place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and throughout it a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that change approaching, rolling round the corner, and the English team hasn't seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.