Australia Enter The Ashes Series with Change Suddenly Imposed on an Older Team

The Ashes may offer one cause for celebration, but this series will also witness the Australian team host a greater number of birthdays than Timezone in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day before the squad was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before the Perth Test. Beau Webster reaches 32 just ahead of 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 out.

Older Squad Fascination Grows

For two or three years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this team and particularly the bowling attack. It is unusual to have nearly all player in a Test side being over 30, except for young mascot Cameron Green and occasional visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that older age was a problem: a Test squad featuring 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 careers.

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

Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the reserve players over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also well into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have briefly joined teams – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injuries, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.

Transition Forced by Injuries

So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the Big Four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a group of same-generation players might mean a group of similarly-timed retirements, but so far change has remained theoretical: a process that would indeed be coming round the mountain when she comes, but one that had not become visible.

Now, suddenly, transition is here, forced upon this Australian squad in the space of a few weeks. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only sit out the first Test, was the team management assessment, 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 team balance experiences a far greater shift with two players absent rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the stability and precision that allows Starc’s left-arm pace and swing to be used more as a attacking option. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift 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 entering the attack after seven or eight overs of early pressure. Now he’ll probably have to be the opening bowler.

Newcomer Faces Pressure

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 full stadium crowd, half of it English, for the first Test of a eagerly awaited Ashes series will not make for an easy debut, no matter how many newspaper profiles portray him as laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be nervous.

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Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this new attack. It might not. What is notable is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the uncertainty of Starc, Lyon, and others. It's unclear what further injuries the opening match may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how complicated stress fractures can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a track record of getting injured early in series and a history of minor injuries turning into extended absences.

Outlook Uncertain

The back half of the series may witness the main four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly the next option and could be a excellent day-night Brisbane choice, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the original team, 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 no place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and throughout it a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that train a-coming, rolling round the corner, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.