🔗 Share this article

The historic Ashes series may offer a reason to cheer, but this series will also see the Aussie side celebrate more birthday parties than an arcade in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day prior to the squad was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just before Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two 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 Grows

For two or three years there has been mounting curiosity with the age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player in a Test team being above thirty, except for novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a disadvantage: a Test squad featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely 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 start of an away Ashes series | Mark Ramprakash

Perhaps what really highlighted the discussion is that the reserve players over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their thirties. Emerging pacemen have floated into teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Forced by Setbacks

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any team knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of simultaneous departures, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, transition is here, forced upon this Australian squad in the span of a short period. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would likely only miss the first Test, was the team management view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the team balance undergoes a much more significant change with two players missing rather than a single 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 attacking option. Missing both of them means a fundamental shift in the balance of the side. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Tests coming on after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Debutant Faces Pressure

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, half of it English, for the opening Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many media stories portray him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the field on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Sign up to our cricket newsletter

Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this new attack. It might not. What is striking is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what new injuries the first Test may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and able to continue after that match, given how complicated stress fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of getting injured early in series and a history of initially small injuries turning into extended absences.

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the series may witness the primary four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might experience transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is apparently next in line and could be a excellent pink-ball Brisbane option, but beyond that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test. 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 opportunity for the visiting team. You can sense that change approaching, rolling round the bend, and the English team hasn't seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.