澳大利亚珀斯对阵印度队的灾难证明了一个时代的结束正在临近，计划可能需要改变。

Steve Smith strolls around the SCG gently, an Australian flag draped across his shoulders and his worn baggy green helmet fixed to his head. Behind him, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon stand arm in arm, gazing up at the crowd that has waited long after Australia confirmed its 4-0 Ashes series victory over England. There are kids on the field, rolling around in green and gold confetti. As the curtain falls on the careers of some of Australia's greatest Test cricketers, tears are shed and memories shared. Maybe Josh Hazlewood is among them, and Usman Khawaja if he so desires.

This image is the guiding star for Australia's Test team. As the bulk of the team edges towards their late 30s, the 2025/26 Ashes has long loomed as a natural and fitting farewell. It's like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer a generation earlier, having one last glorious summer against the old enemy. It's perfect, pre-ordained, poetic.

Of course, that is if they get there. It is much too early in the summer for the "end of an era" shouts, but that end is coming. It's inescapable, and as much as the Australians would like to book the date in themselves, sport just doesn't work that way.

And as the Aussies trundled around Perth Stadium on day three, killing time until the Indians decided they'd had enough of playing with their food, it felt an awful lot like that process was accelerating.

How do you have this conversation without it seeming like catastrophising? Is it even reasonable to suggest that this elongated winding down of the clock could conceivably cost Australia Test matches and series? Yes, considering Australia's current aging Test team and India's emergence as a major test opposition, this is a valid concern.

When it happens, it's all going to happen at once—unless some very hard decisions are made over the course of the next 12 months. So far, Australia's Test team has not come back from 1-0 down in a series to win since 1997. The team is old in cricket terms. If this XI is to remain together until the end of next summer's Ashes, as ostensibly seems to be the plan, Khawaja would be 39, Smith 36, Mitch Marsh 34, Alex Carey 34, Lyon 38, Hazlewood a day short of 35, Starc a few days short of 36 and Pat Cummins a spring chicken at 32.

This is a real concern because when these players retire or are no longer effective, there will be a significant gap in Australia's batting line-up that needs to be filled. The current crop of young players may not be ready to step up and take over from them yet. Therefore, it would be wise for Australian selectors to start planning for the future now and start grooming young players who can take over from these senior players when needed.