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The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this contest will also witness the Aussie side celebrate more birthday parties than Timezone in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day before the team was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of 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 over.

Ageing Squad Fascination Builds

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this team and especially the bowling unit. It is rare to have almost every player near a Test team being over 30, except for young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that greater age was a disadvantage: a Test team boasting a four-man attack 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 well into their thirties. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, 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 backing up. 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 process that would certainly be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, abruptly, change is here, forced upon this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only miss the opening match, was the team management view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily 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 key bowlers absent rather than a single 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 weapon of attack. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the side. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so successful in Tests coming on after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Newcomer Faces Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an overawed youth, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A full stadium crowd, half of it English, for the first 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 ground on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

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Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not work out. What is striking is how quickly Australia have moved from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. It's unclear what further injuries the opening match may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after that match, given how complicated stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of going down early in tournaments and a history of minor injuries becoming extended absences.

Future Uncertain

The latter part of the contest may witness the main four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might experience transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly the next option and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane option, but after that with options uncertain. 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 put back on, and this format is no place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and throughout it a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that change approaching, rolling round the corner, and England hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.