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The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this series will also see the Aussie side celebrate more birthday parties than an arcade in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the team was named. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just ahead of 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 out.

Ageing Squad Interest Builds

For a couple of years there has been mounting fascination with the age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player near a Test team being above thirty, aside from young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a problem: a Test squad 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 well into their careers.

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Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the backup bowlers over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their thirties. Younger bowlers have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

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 similarly-aged players might mean a batch of similarly-timed departures, but so far change has remained theoretical: a process that would certainly be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet become visible.

Now, abruptly, transition is upon them, forced upon 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 opening match, was the team management assessment, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, the team balance undergoes a far greater change with two key bowlers absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm pace and swing 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 domestic career, but he has been so effective in Test matches coming on after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Debutant Confronts Pressure

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 first Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many newspaper profiles describe him as laid-back. He could be brought onto the field on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

Sign up to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not work out. What is notable is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. It's unclear what new injuries the opening match may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how complicated stress fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of getting injured early in tournaments and a history of initially small injuries becoming longer layoffs.

Future Unclear

The latter part of the contest may see the primary four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might experience transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly the next option and could be a great day-night Brisbane option, but beyond that with options uncertain. 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 injury-prone arm repaired, and this level is not the place for easing into one’s work. After them lies the true uncertainty, and amid it all a chance for the opposing side. You can sense that change a-coming, rolling round the corner, and England hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.