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The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Aussie side celebrate a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the nineties. New boy Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the team was announced. Nathan Lyon turns 38 the day preceding the Test in Perth. 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 by the time January is over.

Older Team Interest Grows

For a couple of years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this side and especially the bowling unit. It is rare to have almost every player in a Test team being over 30, aside from novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a disadvantage: a Test squad featuring a four-bowler lineup with over 1,500 wickets between them is hardly a weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers.

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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 well into their 30s. Younger bowlers have floated into squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan.

Change Forced 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 same-generation players might mean a batch of simultaneous departures, but so far change has remained theoretical: a process that would certainly be arriving the bend when she comes, but one that had not steamed into view.

Now, abruptly, change is upon them, imposed on this Aussie team in the span of a few weeks. 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-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has gone down with a hamstring strain, the balance undergoes 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 stability and precision that allows Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a attacking option. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the side. Boland handling the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so effective in Tests entering the attack after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.

Newcomer Confronts Pressure

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself isn't an intimidated youngster, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A full stadium crowd, partly English, for the opening Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many media stories describe him as relaxed. He could be wheeled onto the field on a banana lounge and still be anxious.

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It's uncertain, it might all go swimmingly 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 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 that match, given how tricky stress fractures can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in series and a pattern of initially small injuries becoming extended absences.

Future Unclear

The latter part of the series may witness the main four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner 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 choice, but beyond that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also hurt and has not yet played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this format is not the place for gradually starting one’s work. After them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it opportunity for the opposing side. You can hear that change a-coming, coming around the corner, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.