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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this contest will also witness the Aussie side host more birthday parties than Timezone in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before Brisbane, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on day two in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood becomes 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.

Ageing Squad Fascination Grows

For two or three years there has been mounting fascination with the age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have almost every player in a Test team being over 30, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a disadvantage: a Test squad featuring a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are well into their professional lives.

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

Transition Imposed by Setbacks

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any side knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a batch of similarly-timed departures, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a process that would indeed be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, transition is here, imposed on this Australian squad in the span 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 comfortably be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring injury, the team balance experiences a far greater shift 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 pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Missing both of them means a fundamental shift in the balance of the team. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Test matches coming on after seven to eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Newcomer Confronts Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an intimidated youngster, but he might become an overawed 31-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 media stories portray him as laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

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It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have moved from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. It's unclear what further injuries the first Test may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and able to continue after that match, given how complicated stress fractures 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 extended absences.

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the contest may see the primary four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might experience transition beginning 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 option, but beyond that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm put back on, and this level is no place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that change approaching, coming around the corner, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.