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The historic Ashes series may offer one cause for celebration, but this contest will also witness the Australian team host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the 90s. New boy 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 the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is over.

Ageing Team Fascination Builds

For a couple of years there has been mounting curiosity with the age of this side and especially the bowling attack. It is unusual to have almost every player near a Test side being above thirty, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend 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 scarcely a disadvantage, and it stands to reason 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 well into their thirties. Emerging pacemen have floated into squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Change Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the core four plus Boland have kept on backing up. Any team knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a batch of simultaneous retirements, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, suddenly, change is upon them, imposed on this Australian squad in the span of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only sit out the first Test, was the team management assessment, 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 team balance experiences a much more significant change with two players absent 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 attacking option. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the team. 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 opening bowler.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old 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 eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many media stories describe him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the ground on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

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It's uncertain, it might all go smoothly for this new attack. It might not. What is notable is how rapidly Australia have transitioned from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what new injuries the first Test may cause. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after that match, given how tricky stress fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of going down early in tournaments and a history of minor injuries becoming longer layoffs.

Future Uncertain

The latter part of the contest may witness the primary four bowlers reunited and all going well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane choice, but beyond 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 format is not the place for easing into one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the opposing side. You can sense that change a-coming, rolling round the corner, and the English team hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.