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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also see the Australian team celebrate a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his 31st a day before the squad was announced. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day before the Test in Perth. Beau Webster turns 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 before January is out.

Ageing Team Fascination Grows

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the age of this side and particularly the bowling unit. It is unusual to have almost every player near a Test side being above thirty, except for young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that older age was a problem: a Test team boasting a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are well into their professional lives.

I've never felt this sure at the start of an away Ashes series | a former player

Perhaps what really highlighted the talking point 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 obvious replacement plan.

Change Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a group of similarly-timed retirements, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a process that would certainly be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that had not steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, transition is here, forced upon this Australian squad in the span of a short period. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably only sit out the opening match, was the team management assessment, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the balance experiences a much more significant change with two players 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 pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Missing both of them means a major adjustment in the composition of the side. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual 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 probably have to be the opening bowler.

Debutant Faces 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 packed stadium, partly English, for the first Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many newspaper profiles describe him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the field on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Register to The Spin

It's uncertain, it might all go smoothly for this new attack. It might not work out. What is notable is how quickly 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 bring. Who knows whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how tricky stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in series and a history of initially small injuries turning into extended absences.

Future Unclear

The back half of the series may witness the primary four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might experience transition setting in much earlier 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 beyond that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also hurt and has never played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, 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 change a-coming, rolling round the corner, and England hasn't seen the success since they don’t know when.