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The Ashes may offer a reason to cheer, but this series will also witness the Aussie side host more birthday parties than an arcade in the 90s. New boy Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day prior to the team was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just before the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.

Older Team Interest Grows

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this side and particularly the bowling unit. It is rare to have almost every player near a Test team being above thirty, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a disadvantage: a Test team featuring 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.

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Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the reserve players over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Change Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued backing up. Any side knows that having a group of same-generation players might mean a group of simultaneous departures, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet become visible.

Now, suddenly, change is here, forced upon this Aussie team in the span of a few weeks. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably only sit out the first Test, was the Cricket Australia view, 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 balance undergoes a far greater shift with two key bowlers absent rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the stability and precision that allows Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Missing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the side. Boland handling the new ball is nothing new in his first-class career, but he has been so effective in Tests coming on after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Faces Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself isn't an overawed youth, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, partly English, for the opening Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many media stories describe him as laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the field on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

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It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not work out. What is notable is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what new injuries the first Test may cause. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after that match, given how complicated stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of going down early in series and a pattern of minor injuries becoming longer layoffs.

Future Unclear

The back half of the contest may see the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might experience transition setting in much sooner 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 initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm repaired, and this level is no place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and throughout it a chance for the opposing side. You can hear that train a-coming, coming around the bend, and the English team hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.