🔗 Share this article The Australian Team Begin Ashes Series with Transition Suddenly Forced Upon an Older Squad The Ashes could provide one cause for celebration, but this contest will also see the Aussie side celebrate a greater number of birthdays than an arcade in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his 31st a day before the squad 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 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 growing curiosity with the age of this side and especially the bowling attack. It is rare to have nearly all player near a Test team being above thirty, except for young mascot Cameron Green and custody-weekend visitor Sam Konstas. But it wasn't necessarily true that greater age was a disadvantage: a Test team boasting a four-man attack with 1,568 wickets between them is scarcely a weakness, and it stands to reason that all of those bowlers are well into their careers. I can’t remember ever being so confident 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 well into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have floated into squads – Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson – before vanishing for years with injury, meaning there has been no obvious replacement plan. Transition Imposed by Injuries So far, that hasn’t mattered, as the core four plus Boland have kept on performing. Any side knows that having a group of similarly-aged players might mean a batch of simultaneous retirements, but so far transition has remained theoretical: a train that would certainly be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that had not become visible. Now, suddenly, transition is here, imposed on this Australian squad in the span of a short period. The spinal issue to Pat Cummins was greeted with equanimity: he would likely only sit out the first Test, was the Cricket Australia assessment, and as the first-change bowler behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be replaced by Boland. Brendan Doggett (left) and Mitchell Starc during a training session in Western Australia in the preparation to the first Test. Image: AAP But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the balance undergoes a much more significant change with two key bowlers missing 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 attacking option. Missing both of them means a fundamental shift in the balance of the side. Boland taking the new ball is nothing new in his domestic career, but he has been so successful in Tests coming on after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now he’ll probably have to be the man up front. Debutant Confronts Pressure Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at 31 years old himself isn't an intimidated youngster, but he might become an overawed 31-year-old. A packed stadium, 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 banana lounge and still be anxious. Sign up to our cricket newsletter Who knows, it might all go smoothly for this revamped bowling lineup. It might not. What is striking is how rapidly Australia have moved from the surety of Starc, Lyon, Cummins, Hazlewood to the unknown of Starc, Lyon, mumble mumble. Who knows what further injuries the first Test may bring. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for Brisbane, and able to continue after Brisbane, given how complicated stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be sidelined, with a history of going down early in series and a pattern of minor injuries turning into longer layoffs. Outlook Uncertain The back half of the contest may witness the primary four bowlers reunited and all performing well. Or it might see transition setting in much sooner than the stretch goal of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is seemingly next in line and could be a great day-night Brisbane option, but beyond that with options unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though he’s now also injured 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 easing into one’s work. Beyond them lies the true uncertainty, and amid it all opportunity for the visiting team. You can hear that train a-coming, rolling round the bend, and England ain’t seen the sunshine since they can't recall when.