The historic Ashes series could provide a reason to cheer, but this series will also witness the Aussie side host a greater number of birthdays than an arcade 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 preceding the Perth Test. 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 fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 by the time January is out.
For a couple of years there has been growing curiosity with the average age of this side and particularly the bowling unit. It is unusual to have almost every player in a Test side being over 30, except for novelty-sized mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it didn’t logically follow that older age was a problem: a Test team boasting a four-bowler lineup with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a disadvantage, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are well into their professional lives.
I've never felt this sure at the start of an Ashes tour | a former player
Perhaps what most amplified 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 floated into squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession.
So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the core 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 hypothetical: a process that would certainly be coming round the mountain 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 span of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would probably only miss the opening match, 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 injury, the balance experiences a far greater change with two key bowlers missing rather than a single one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two tight-line right-armers give the balance and control that enables Starc’s left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a weapon of attack. Missing both of them means a fundamental shift in the balance of the team. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so effective in Test matches entering the attack after seven to eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front.
Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't 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 laid-back. He could be wheeled onto the field on a banana lounge and still be nervous.
Sign up to our cricket newsletter
Who knows, it might all go swimmingly for this new attack. It might not work out. What is striking is how quickly Australia have moved from the certainty of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what new injuries the opening match may cause. Who knows whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after that match, given how tricky stress injuries can be. Who knows how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of getting injured early in series and a history of minor injuries turning into extended absences.
The latter part of the series may witness the primary four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in the UK. Not through Neser, who is seemingly the next option and could be a excellent day-night Brisbane option, but after that with options uncertain. Sean Abbott was in the original team, though he’s now also injured and has never played a Test. Richardson has just had his injury-prone arm repaired, and this format is no place for gradually starting one’s work. Beyond them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can sense that change approaching, coming around the bend, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they don’t know when.
A tech enthusiast and gaming aficionado with over a decade of experience in digital media and content creation.
