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The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Australian team host more birthday parties than Timezone in the 90s. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day prior to the squad was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of the Brisbane match, 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 before January is out.

Ageing Squad Fascination Builds

For a couple of years there has been mounting curiosity with the age of this team and especially the bowling attack. It is rare to have nearly all player near a Test team being over 30, aside from novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a disadvantage: a Test squad featuring a four-bowler lineup 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.

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Perhaps what really highlighted the talking point is that the backup bowlers over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their thirties. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before disappearing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Change Forced by Setbacks

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the core four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a batch of similarly-aged players might mean a group of simultaneous retirements, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be arriving the mountain when she comes, but one that hadn’t yet steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, change is here, imposed on this Australian squad in the space of a short period. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only miss the first Test, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could comfortably be replaced by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring strain, the team balance experiences a much more significant change with two players absent rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the balance and control that allows 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 team. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so effective in Test matches entering the attack after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll likely have to be the man up front.

Newcomer Faces Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old 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 newspaper profiles describe him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the field on a banana lounge and still be nervous.

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Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how quickly Australia have transitioned from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, and others. Who knows what further injuries the opening match may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be good to go for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how tricky stress fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of getting injured early in series and a history of initially small injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Future Uncertain

The latter part of the series may witness the main four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might see transition beginning much sooner than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a excellent day-night Brisbane choice, but after that with options 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 level is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the real unknown, and throughout it a chance for the opposing side. You can sense that change approaching, rolling round the bend, and the English team ain’t seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.