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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Australian team celebrate more birthday parties than an arcade in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just ahead of Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.

Ageing Team Interest Grows

For a couple of years there has been mounting curiosity with the age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. 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 problem: a Test squad 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 professional lives.

I've never felt this sure at the beginning of an Ashes tour | a former player

Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the reserve players over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their 30s. Younger bowlers have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the core four plus Boland have kept on backing up. Any team knows that having a batch of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of simultaneous retirements, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a process that would indeed be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, suddenly, change is upon them, imposed on 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-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring strain, the balance experiences a much more significant change with two players absent rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a weapon of attack. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the balance of the side. Boland handling the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so successful in Test matches entering the attack after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the opening bowler.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

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 nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, 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 brought onto the field on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

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It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, and others. It's unclear what new injuries the first Test may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after Brisbane, given how complicated stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a track record of getting injured early in tournaments and a history of minor injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Future Uncertain

The latter part of the series may see the primary four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might experience transition setting in 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 great day-night Brisbane option, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also hurt and has not yet played a Test. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm repaired, and this format is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and amid it all opportunity for the opposing side. You can hear that train approaching, rolling round the bend, and the English team ain’t seen the success since they don’t know when.