It used to be England whose players went on forever, while the Australians picked them young and sent them packing at about 32. Not any more. England won the Ashes with a vibrant young team after ditching their only veteran, Graham Thorpe. Australia lost with an ageing side and held a clear-out afterwards, dumping Damien Martyn, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz, but then, astonishingly, they brought them back.

This winter, Australia look as if they will have a majority of over-35s in their starting XI. Shane Warne will be 37, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer 36 and Matthew Hayden, Martyn, Adam Gilchrist and Stuart MacGill will be 35. Even Australia’s new recruits are getting on. The excellent Michael Hussey is 31, as is Stuart Clark, the new third seamer. Ricky Ponting, 31, will be leading out Dad ’s Army.

Meanwhile, England have got even younger. Michael Vaughan’s place has gone to Alastair Cook, 21, ten years his junior. Monty Panesar, 24, is nine years younger than Ashley Giles. Simon Jones, 27, will be replaced by Sajid Mahmood, 24, or conceivably Stuart Broad, 20. Even Chris Read, 28, is two years younger than Geraint Jones. The only oldish new boy is Paul Collingwood, 30, who is England’s answer to Hussey.

Darren Gough, recently restored to the one-day squad, is considered an old codger at nearly 36. Mark Ramprakash, in the form of his life at 36, is seen as too old for a Test recall, even though his poor record does not apply against Australia. The last time he faced Warne and McGrath, in 2001, he made a fine hundred.

Age usually brings experience, but the England selectors now tend to pick older players only if they are international novices. Shaun Udal made his Test debut at 36, Glen Chapple finally reached the one-day team at 32 and Mal Loye, nearly 34, is on the long-list for the ICC Champions Trophy. Yet Mark Butcher, Loye’s almost exact contemporary, has been written off.

If England’s youth policy had come into force earlier, Ray Illingworth and Mike Brearley would never have lifted the Ashes and Graham Gooch would not have been around to make his 333.

England’s youthful zest is exciting, but this winter they could be a little too young. At the Brit Oval, in the innocent times before Darrell Hair, the umpire, took centre stage, their batting capitulated to an improved but far from daunting Pakistan attack. In Australia they will have what Micky Stewart, the former England manager, once called a lot of inexperience. Of the present batsmen, only Marcus Trescothick has been on an Ashes tour and he struggled, making only one fifty in five Tests.

Local knowledge is not essential in Australia — Vaughan was phenomenal on his first tour there — but it helps.

Equally, the Australians may be too old. Matthew Hoggard’s jibe of last summer, questioning whether their bowlers could manage a whole series, proved prescient. John Buchanan, the Australia coach, has faced similar questions from the press, answering with his trademark blend of lateral thinking and gobbledygook.

“Yes, we do have some players who have moved into the 30-plus zone,” he said recently. “But I’m still a believer that the average age of cricketers has significantly risen anyway, so I don’t ever see age as a relevant issue. You can be 21 and an old player, or you can be 35 and a young player.” Really?

Meanwhile, McGrath has been claiming that he is bowling faster than ever. He may even go on to such a great age that he stops making ridiculous pronouncements.

TIM DE LISLE’S ENGLAND OLDIES XI

1 J M Brearley (captain)
Was 34 when he played his first Test and 39 when he returned as captain to mastermind Botham’s Ashes

2 G A Gooch
Made his debut at 21 but only reached fulfilment as a veteran. Averaged 36 until he was 36, and 51 thereafter. Played his last Test at 41 in 1994-95

3 W G Grace
Was 50 when he took on Australia at Trent Bridge in 1899. Made 28 in a game that largely consisted of maiden overs

4 M C Cowdrey
Flew to Australia as a 42-year-old replacement on the 1974-75 tour, when Lillee and Thomson were wreaking havoc and breaking limbs. Survived

5 F E Woolley
Famously elegant left-hander who was brought back for an Ashes series decider in 1934, aged 47. He made four and nought and England lost by 562 runs

6 D B Close
Took on the might of the West Indies’ pace quartet in 1976 when he was 45 — and helmets had yet to catch on

7 I T Botham
Among other accomplishments, England’s most durable seamer: he bowled 21,815 balls in Tests, far more than either Fred Trueman or Alec Bedser, and kept going till 36

8 G O B Allen
Opened the bowling at 45, at Kingston in 1948, after leaving his desk in the City to get “cricket fit”. Soon pulled a muscle

9 J E Emburey
Wheeled out for one last game at 42 against West Indies in 1995. Didn’t improve his strike-rate (102 balls per wicket)

10 R W Taylor (wicketkeeper) The Chris Read of his day kept on stumping to the age of 42. Of his 57 Tests, 56 came after his 36th birthday

11 W Rhodes England’s oldest cricketer at 52 against West Indies at Kingston in 1930. He conceded less than one run per over with his slow left-armers — 31 years after making his debut alongside the 50-year-old W. G.

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