A glimpse at Austalia's fast-bowling future

At 23, Peter Siddle made his Test debut. A former champion woodchopper, Siddle was a country boy who had made his name in cricket after moving to the big city. In Mohali, he replaced the injured Stuart Clark in the side. On the following year's Ashes tour to England, Siddle was a fixture in the team and Clark played Test cricket for the last time.

At 23, Josh Hazlewood will make his Test debut. A former champion javelin thrower, Hazlewood is a country boy who made his name in cricket after moving to the big city. In Brisbane, he will replace the axed Peter Siddle. Next year there is an Ashes tour to England. Such are the cycles of international cricket.

As Australian cricket now ponders Michael Clarke's future, so must it wonder what is next for Siddle. The two men are Australia's most capped Test cricketers since the start of the 2008-09 home summer. It is not that Siddle is finished, but his pace has slipped and so has he, behind some of his younger colleagues. His chances might be fewer and further between, and might arise through injuries to others.

Last month, Siddle was asked how secure he felt in his Test position after a disappointing tour of the UAE. He was confident in the future of the Ashes-winning Johnson-Harris-Siddle, but conscious of the vast array of young fast bowlers breathing down their necks, men like Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson.

"There's a lot of them," Siddle said at the time. "You could pick them all ... We just play our part, keep doing what we do and hopefully we play in front of them for a lot longer to come."

Turns out it wasn't that much longer after all. One Test into the home series against India, and Mitchell Johnson is the only one of the experienced trio to have kept his spot. Ryan Harris is battling a quad injury and Siddle, for the second time this year, has been dropped. In Cape Town, Pattinson took his place when Siddle's pace fell away, and at the Gabba, Hazlewood and Starc will come in for Siddle and Harris.

At 30, being dropped twice in a year is a worrying sign for a fast bowler. But the selectors have decided that the future is now, appointing 25-year-old Steven Smith as captain in Clarke's absence and handing a debut to Hazlewood.

Smith knows that if in doubt, he can toss the ball to Hazlewood with confidence. When Smith captained New South Wales for two Sheffield Shield matches at the back end of last summer, Hazlewood collected 13 wickets at 9.00 across the two games. The second of those games was a Sheffield Shield final, and New South Wales won the title.

Hazlewood believes he is much more prepared for Test cricket now than in his previous incarnations as a Test aspirant. He was first chosen in a Test squad in 2010, for the two-Test tour of India, a few months after he had made his one-day international debut in England as a 19-year-old.

"I'd only played a handful of games for New South Wales so I was quite inexperienced and not quite ready maybe," Hazlewood told SEN radio on the eve of his Test debut. "Now I know my game a lot better and I've really improved over the last 18 months I think, and really ready to go."

Much of his improvement is down to working with Australia's bowling coach Craig McDermott, whose mantra has always been for his men to bowl fuller and allow the ball to swing. That did not always come naturally to Hazlewood.

"He's really worked on me bowling a fuller length and trying to get a bit more swing," Hazlewood said. "Beforehand I was bashing the wicket and not getting many bowleds or lbws or nicks. I've worked on that the last couple of years and I think I've got a lot more wickets and challenged the batsmen on the front foot a lot more."

Part of the reason for Hazlewood's earlier approach was the mistaken belief that it was how Glenn McGrath got his wickets. The McGrath comparisons were made as soon as Hazlewood emerged from the small town of Bendemeer, near Tamworth, to play for New South Wales as a 17-year-old in 2008.

Back home, Hazlewood had been athletically multi-talented. He was three times Australian champion at javelin from under-13s to under-15s level, and when he was 10 he won gold medals in both discus and shot-put at the National Primary Schools Athletic Championships in Melbourne. With such a powerful right arm, is it any wonder he gains significant speed and bounce on a cricket pitch?

He will make his debut in an attack also featuring Starc, who last played against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and continues his trend of failing to play consecutive Tests. At 24 and 23 respectively, Starc and Hazlewood have long careers ahead of them. So, when they are fit, will Pattinson, 24, and Cummins, 21.

Just as Clarke hopes to come back into the Test team, so will Siddle. Both might have more to offer. But for a variety of reasons this week at the Gabba is a glimpse into Australia's future.