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The historic Ashes series could provide one cause for celebration, but this contest will also witness the Australian team celebrate more birthday parties than Timezone in the 90s. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day prior to the squad was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before 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 by the time January is over.

Ageing Team Interest Builds

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the age of this team and especially the bowling attack. It is rare to have almost every player in a Test team being above thirty, except for novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a disadvantage: a Test squad featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is hardly a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

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Perhaps what really highlighted the talking point is that the reserve players over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Transition Forced by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued backing up. Any team knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of simultaneous retirements, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a process that would certainly be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet become visible.

Now, abruptly, transition is here, imposed on this Aussie team in the space of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only sit out the first Test, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring injury, the balance experiences a much more significant change with two key bowlers absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the stability and precision 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 domestic career, but he has been so successful in Tests entering the attack after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. 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 intimidated youngster, 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 simple first match, no matter how many newspaper profiles describe him as relaxed. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Sign up to The Spin

It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not work out. What is notable is how rapidly Australia have transitioned from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what further injuries the first Test may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for Brisbane, and good to back up after Brisbane, given how complicated stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a track record of going down early in tournaments and a pattern of initially small injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Outlook Uncertain

The latter part of the contest may witness the primary four bowlers reunited and all going well. Or it might see transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane choice, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm put back on, and this format is no place for easing into one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the opposing side. You can sense that train approaching, rolling round the corner, and the English team hasn't seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.