đ Share this article The Australian Team Enter The Ashes Series with Transition Abruptly Forced Upon an Ageing Team The historic Ashes series may offer a reason to cheer, but this contest will also see the Australian team celebrate more birthday parties than Timezone in the nineties. Recent addition Jake Weatherald had his thirty-first birthday a day prior to the team was announced. Nathan Lyon celebrates 38 the day before 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 fifth day in Sydney, and Mitchell Starc will be 36 before January is out. Older Squad Interest Builds For a couple of years there has been growing fascination with the average age of this team and especially the bowling attack. 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 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 weakness, and it makes sense that all of those bowlers are deep into their careers. I've never felt this sure at the beginning of an away Ashes series | Mark Ramprakash Perhaps what most amplified the discussion is that the backup bowlers over that period, Scott Boland and Michael Neser, are also deep into their 30s. Emerging pacemen have floated into squads â Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson â before disappearing for years with injury, meaning there has been no clear line of succession. Transition Forced by Injuries So far, that hasnât mattered, as the core four plus Boland have kept on backing up. Any side knows that having a batch of similarly-aged players might mean a group of simultaneous departures, but so far transition has remained hypothetical: a train that would indeed be coming round the bend when she comes, but one that hadnât yet steamed into view. Now, abruptly, change is upon them, imposed on this Aussie team in the space of a short period. The back injury to Pat Cummins was taken in stride: he would likely only miss the opening match, was the Cricket Australia view, and as the first bowling change behind Starc and Hazlewood, he could easily be replaced by Boland. Brendan Doggett (left) and Mitchell Starc during a training session in Perth in the build up to the first Test. Image: Dave Hunt/AAP But now that Hazlewood has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, the balance experiences a far greater shift with two key bowlers absent rather than one. Cummins and Hazlewood as the two accurate right-arm bowlers give the stability and precision that enables Starcâs left-arm speed and movement to be used more as a weapon of attack. Losing both of them means a fundamental shift in the composition of the team. Boland taking the new ball is not unusual in his first-class career, but he has been so effective in Test matches coming on after seven or eight overs of initial onslaught. Now heâll likely have to be the man up front. Newcomer Confronts Expectations Behind him will come Brendan Doggett, who at thirty-one years of age himself wonât be an overawed youth, but he might become an nervous thirty-one-year-old. A full stadium crowd, partly English, for the opening Test of a deliriously anticipated Ashes series will not make for an simple first match, no matter how many newspaper profiles portray him as relaxed. He could be wheeled onto the ground on a sun lounger and still be anxious. Register to our cricket newsletter Who knows, it might all go smoothly 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, mumble mumble. Who knows what further injuries the first Test may cause. It's unknown whether Cummins will be fit for the Brisbane Test, and able to continue after that match, given how complicated stress injuries can be. It's uncertain how long Hazlewood might be out, with a history of going down early in tournaments and a pattern of minor injuries becoming extended absences. Future Unclear The latter part of the contest may witness the primary four bowlers back together and all performing well. Or it might experience transition setting in much earlier than the long-term aim of 2027 in England. Not through Neser, who is apparently the next option and could be a great pink-ball Brisbane choice, but after that with choices unclear. Sean Abbott was in the initial squad, though heâs now also injured and has never played a Test match. Richardson has just had his crash-test-dummy arm put back on, and this level is not the place for easing into oneâs work. After them lies the real unknown, and amid it all a chance for the visiting team. You can hear that train a-coming, coming around the corner, and the English team hasn't seen the success since they can't recall when.