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The Ashes could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also see the Australian team host more birthday parties than Timezone in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his thirty-first birthday a day before the team was named. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster turns 32 just before Brisbane, 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 Squad Fascination Builds

For two or three years there has been mounting fascination with the age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is rare to have almost every player near a Test team 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 disadvantage: a Test squad featuring a four-man attack with over 1,500 wickets between them is hardly a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their careers.

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

Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the reserve players over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have floated into teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Transition Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any team knows that having a batch of same-generation players might mean a group of simultaneous departures, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a train that would certainly be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, transition is upon them, forced upon this Australian squad in the space of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would probably only sit out the first Test, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring injury, the balance experiences a far greater shift with two players absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the stability and precision that enables Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Losing both of them means a major adjustment in the balance of the side. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so successful in Test matches coming on after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Debutant Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself won’t be an overawed youth, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A packed stadium, partly English, for the first Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, 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 anxious.

Register to The Spin

Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this new attack. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what new injuries the first Test may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, 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 going down early in tournaments and a history of initially small injuries becoming extended absences.

Future Uncertain

The latter part of the contest may witness the primary four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might experience transition setting in much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a excellent day-night Brisbane choice, but beyond that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also hurt and has not yet played a Test match. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm put back on, and this format is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and amid it all opportunity for the opposing side. You can sense that change a-coming, coming around the corner, and England ain’t seen the success since they can't recall when.