Australia Begin Ashes Series with Change Abruptly Imposed on an Ageing Squad

The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this contest will also witness the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the 90s. Recent addition Jake Weatherald celebrated his 31st a day before the squad was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day preceding the Test in Perth. Beau Webster reaches 32 just before the Brisbane match, Usman Khawaja will be 39 on the second day in Adelaide, Josh Hazlewood turns 35 on the final day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is over.

Older Team Interest Builds

For two or three years there has been growing curiosity with the average age of this side and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player near a Test team being above thirty, except for novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a disadvantage: a Test team boasting a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a disadvantage, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their professional lives.

I can’t remember ever being so confident at the beginning of an Ashes tour | a former player

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

Transition Imposed by Injuries

So far, that hasn't been an issue, as the Big Four plus Boland have continued performing. Any team knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a group of simultaneous retirements, but so far change has remained hypothetical: a train that would certainly be arriving the bend when she comes, but one that had not steamed into view.

Now, suddenly, transition is here, imposed on this Aussie team in the span of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only sit out the first Test, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be covered for by Boland.

But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the team balance experiences a far greater change with two players 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 fundamental shift in the composition of the side. Boland handling the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Test matches entering the attack after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Confronts Expectations

Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself won’t be an intimidated youngster, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, partly English, for the first Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many media stories describe him as relaxed. He could be brought onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

Sign up to The Spin

It's uncertain, it might all go smoothly for this new attack. It might not work out. 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 new injuries the first Test may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after that match, given how tricky stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a track record of going down early in series and a history of minor injuries turning into longer layoffs.

Future Uncertain

The back half of the contest may see the primary four bowlers back together and all going well. Or it might see transition beginning much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane option, but beyond that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has not yet played a Test. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm repaired, and this format 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 hear that train a-coming, coming around the bend, and the English team ain’t seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.