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The Ashes could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also witness the Australian team host more birthday parties than an arcade in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the team was announced. 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 becomes 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.

Ageing Squad Interest Builds

For a couple of years there has been mounting curiosity with the average age of this side and especially the bowling attack. It is rare to have nearly all player near a Test side being above thirty, except for novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that greater age was a disadvantage: a Test team featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is hardly a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their professional lives.

I can’t remember ever being so confident at the beginning of an away Ashes series | 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. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any team knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a batch of similarly-timed departures, but so far change has remained theoretical: a process that would certainly be arriving the bend when she comes, but one that had not steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, change is upon them, imposed on this Australian squad in the space of a short period. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only miss the opening match, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, the team balance undergoes a much more significant change with two key bowlers absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control 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 composition of the team. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Test matches entering the attack after seven to eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself won’t be an intimidated youngster, 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 describe him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the field on a sun lounger and still be anxious.

Register to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what new injuries the opening match may bring. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and good to back up after Brisbane, given how tricky stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of going down early in series and a pattern of initially small injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Outlook Uncertain

The latter part of the contest may see the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might experience transition setting in much earlier than the stretch goal of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is apparently next in line and could be a excellent day-night 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 match. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm repaired, and this level is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the true uncertainty, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that train a-coming, coming around the bend, and the English team hasn't seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.