🔗 Share this article

The historic Ashes series may offer 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 31st a day before the team was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Test in Perth. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before Brisbane, 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 before January is out.

Older Team Fascination Builds

For a couple of years there has been mounting curiosity with the age of this team and especially the bowling unit. It is unusual to have almost every player in a Test team being above thirty, except for young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that greater age was a problem: a Test team boasting a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is hardly a disadvantage, 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 Ashes tour | 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. Emerging pacemen have floated into 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 core four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a group of simultaneous retirements, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train 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 short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would likely only miss the first Test, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring strain, the team balance experiences a far greater 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 allows 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 composition of the side. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so effective in Test matches entering the attack after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an overawed youth, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A packed stadium, 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 describe him as relaxed. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

Sign up to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not work out. What is striking is how rapidly Australia have moved from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what new injuries the opening match may bring. Who knows whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after that match, given how tricky stress fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of getting injured early in tournaments and a history of initially small injuries becoming longer layoffs.

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the series may witness the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane option, but beyond that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test. 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 real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can hear that train approaching, rolling round the bend, and England hasn't seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.