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The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Aussie side celebrate more birthday parties than Timezone in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day prior to the team was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is over.

Older Team Fascination Grows

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the age of this team and especially the bowling attack. It is rare to have almost every player near a Test side being over 30, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a problem: a Test squad featuring a four-bowler lineup with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

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Perhaps what really highlighted the talking point is that the reserve players over that time, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Change Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on backing up. Any team knows that having a batch of similarly-aged 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 had not become visible.

Now, abruptly, transition is here, imposed on this Aussie team 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 Cricket Australia 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 injury, the balance undergoes a far greater change with two key bowlers missing rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision that enables Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a weapon of attack. Missing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the side. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Tests entering the attack after seven to eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Debutant Faces Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself isn't an overawed youth, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A packed stadium, partly English, for the opening Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many newspaper profiles describe him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be anxious.

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It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not work out. What is striking is how rapidly Australia have transitioned from the surety 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 good to go for Brisbane, and able to continue after that match, given how tricky stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of going down early in series and a history of initially small injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Future Unclear

The back half of the contest may witness the main four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is apparently next in line and could be a excellent day-night Brisbane choice, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test match. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm repaired, and this level is no place for easing into one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it opportunity for the opposing side. You can hear that train approaching, rolling round the bend, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.