At surface level, the last Ashes series went just how an Ashes series in Australia is supposed to go. Another intrepid England team went Down Under seeking to remedy its poor away record, and came back smarting from a 4-1 defeat.

Things went how they normally do.

Below the surface, though, the winds of change were slowly blowing through the Australian team, particularly on the bowling front. While Mitchell Starc won the Compton-Miller medal for his 31 wickets, the other members of its reputed bowling cartel found themselves playing far more transient roles. Josh Hazlewood missed all five Tests through injury, while Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon played just one and two Tests respectively.

Their enforced absences forced Australia to call upon the depth of its pace bowling reverses, which will likely be called upon as it embarks upon a busy Test schedule over the next 12 months.

Among those to get the call-up were Brendan Doggett and Jhye Richardson, who were both recently in Chennai for the launch of the Big Bash League season-opener between Doggett’s Melbourne Renegades and Richardson’s Perth Scorchers.

The pair will also be in India over the next month as part of the Australia A squad for its red-ball matches against India A in Puducherry.

Debuting at the Optus Stadium

For Doggett, who became the first seamer to debut for the Baggy Green since Scott Boland in December 2021 when he played in the first Test at Perth, his first taste of international cricket ended a long wait for an elusive Test cap having been a member of multiple squads without featuring.

“Making my debut in an Ashes series, especially in the first Test at the Optus Stadium, it’s a dream come true to be playing in front of 60,000 people. It is intimidating, and that was a big learning for me, how to handle that pressure with a bigger crowd and a lot more pressure riding on it,” he said to reporters here.

His Ashes appearances also gave him the experience of sharing a dressing room with the senior quicks, and Doggett reflected on the experience, saying, “I’m in a very fortunate position, to be able to rub shoulders with probably the best fast bowlers of this generation to do it.

They’re all playing in one team and they all go about it a little bit differently in their own way. But, to be able to lean on those guys and learn from them and see what they do well, I’m very fortunate to be able to do that.”

Doggett played the first two Tests of the series, claiming seven wickets at 30.71, but managed just three BBL matches before tearing his hamstring in his last First-Class appearance for South Australia against New South Wales.

The 32-year-old confirmed that he has returned to full fitness, and is looking to impress in the two four-day games in Puducherry.

“The body’s going well,” he said. “Everything’s going well so far, I’ve been up and bowling and look forward to performing against India A and hopefully playing some Test cricket. I’ve been up and running at full fitness now for probably the last two months.”

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The A-team outings thus offer him an opportunity to press home his claim for further opportunities with the main side during its busy schedule.

“It is a massive ambition for me. But being a fast bowler in Australia right now is pretty hard work, you’ve got Scott Boland who averages 18 in Test cricket sitting on the sidelines, so it’s a pretty tough job to try and break into that team,” he reflected.

A bittersweet return

Richardson, meanwhile, made his return to the red-ball set-up four years after his last Test appearance in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

For the 30-year-old, long seen as one of Australia’s brightest fast-bowling talents with a Test average of 21, it was reward for a long-fought battle with recurring injuries, though he looked back on the match as “bittersweet”.

“It was a little bit bittersweet because looking back, I probably felt a little bit underdone going into that match. I think that’s just the reality,” reflected Richardson.

“We were less than 12 months post shoulder surgery. So I think in one sense, it was amazing to know that I can get back there, and it was amazing to know that, after having surgery, I’ve worked really hard and I can get back to that position.

But on the flip side of that, I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked. I didn’t bowl as fast as I would have liked. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but there will probably be some things that I would do differently leading into that game.”

In the time that has passed since that Test, Richardson has finally been able to put together a consistent run of games. He played the back half of the Sheffield Shield for Western Australia before a four-game stint in County Cricket with Yorkshire, and the Global Super League with the Scorchers.

“This year has been a slightly different approach for me. Obviously, the last couple of years with injury, I haven’t had a long string of games together. So the idea was to finish the season strong and then pretty much head straight into playing some county cricket. Get some games there and then head to Guyana for the GSL, which luckily I’ve gotten through so far,” he explained.

Among his teammates at Yorkshire was Joe Root, who he accounted for in the Melbourne Test, and the now-England captain proved a shoulder for Richardson to lean on.

“It was amazing,” Richardson said of his county stint. “Joe is amazing off the field. He’s one of the best players in the world. But you know, some of the conversations that we have off the field don’t regard cricket whatsoever. He’s very intelligent and he thinks a lot about what he says. So it was a lot of fun, and I’d love to go back next year.”

Eyes on the Baggy Green again

Adding to their haul of caps is a clear aim for both Doggett and Richardson with several marquee series on the horizon including the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which will see Australia return to Chennai.

“With so much Test cricket happening in the next 12 months for us, hopefully there’s going to be opportunities there that arise for me. So personally, it’s just about staying ready and fit, and performing when I do get an opportunity, then let the rest take care of itself,” reflected Doggett.

Richardson similarly had his eye on more appearances with the Test side, though he tempered his expectations, saying, “My ideal scenario is to always play Test cricket. I’d love to play Test cricket. I’ve played a few games now, I’ve had a taste of it, but with shoulder issues and other issues, I haven’t played as much as I would have liked. It is always in the background. But for me, my mentality this year is just to be where my feet are.”

With a packed schedule across formats, red-ball opportunities will almost certainly become available through the year. For both Doggett and Richardson, the race for those spots will begin in Puducherry on September 22.