Money talks: Why Australia can afford to have the oldest Test team since the 1920s

October 17, 2026 — 9:30am

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The cricket world keeps expecting Australia’s Test team to act their age, and the players keep saying: “Not yet.”

Mitchell Starc’s hairline is the only part of him that looks as old as 36. Patrick Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, injury-free in Durban, bowled with the pace and freshness of men in their early 20s – or better, in their case, given how much of their early 20s they spent rehabbing.

Steve Smith, at 37, may refine his particular personal routines and conclude his restless search for perfection, but only in the distant future.

Young Matt Renshaw, a stripling of 30, saved the day at Kingsmead; a potential 10-year career lies ahead.

History says a team can’t thrive when none of its personnel is younger than 30 – unprecedented – or when its average age, 34.59, is higher than most of its batting averages.

The years overhaul all of us; history needs to be the final winner. But those of us who thought this team would have been timed out by now have been proven wrong.

There may be XI portraits of Dorian Gray in their attics. Or Test cricket’s 150 years might tell a slightly different story about age.

The oldest Test cricket teams were anomalies after the First World War. Australia’s oldest by average age (35.9) was a group who........

© The Sydney Morning Herald