When England play Australia at Manchester in the fourth Ashes Test match, they will field their oldest home bowling attack for 95 years. It's once more into the breach and this is one battle the English have to win. The last time there was a furore about England’s ‘Dad’s Army’, 40-year-old Graham Gooch and 37-year-old Mike Gatting were enlisted to take on Australia in 1994.

It was Gooch and Gatting’s last Test series. England, like Novak Djokovic, will be pinning their hopes on 36 being the new 26. There are some worrying signs that wounded bodies could pile up during five-day combat at Old Trafford in this hectic schedule.

Moeen Ali, who retired from Tests two years ago only to be wooed back to the fold by Ben Stokes, has just had his bowling finger healed via a NHS recommendation. 96mph speedster Mark Wood harassed Australia at Headingley with the ball and some heavy metal batting but is prone to breaking down. Jimmy Anderson did nothing but look like a 40-year-old in the first two Tests. Everyone is being polite about it as they should be for a man who has taken almost 700 Test wickets. Only Stuart Broad, just turned 37, looks as fresh as a daisy. He's probably drooling over another chance to dismiss David Warner.

Both teams will have enjoyed the break since the end of the Leeds Test. It is almost sacrilege that the final scene of the Ashes will be played out in the last week of July at the Oval just after schools break up in the United Kingdom. Test cricket has been elevated by Bazball and the first three matches which could have gone either way. The Hundred has now devoured August much to the cynicism of many purists who scoff at its arrival. If this series has proved anything, it’s that there is plenty of magic in the red ball format.

If Test cricket is meant to be a young man’s game – albeit without a new generation of schoolchildren watching on - then nobody told Australia either. The under-fire opener Warner is 36 as is his batting partner Usman Khawaja, who is having the tour of his life in England apart from the choice language in the Long Room. Steve Smith is 34 and, barring a century at Lord’s in the first innings, has been as out of sorts as fellow batting obsessive Marnus Labuschagne. The feeling is that one of the big guns will fire it up this week.

The thirtysomething characters who have managed to keep the series alive are likeable, down-to-earth cricketers. Chris Woakes is an excellent bowler in English conditions and a very handy batsman. When Stokes was out for a mesmerising 155 at Lord’s, England still needed 70 but didn’t have the tailenders to knock off the runs. Woakes coming in at No.8 was crucial in seeing the hosts home at Leeds with 80 still needed. Wood also brings an X-factor with his batting, fully licensed to smash it into the stands.

Harry Brook is the one real rookie in England’s team, a perfect study of uber-cool youth, unburdened by the trials and tensions of an Ashes series. He loves batting but not in an obsessed, uptight manner. Brook’s baseball influences are obvious and while eyebrows could be raised about the manner of a few dismissals, it doesn’t matter in Team Bazball where nothing negative is held as evidence.

Brook is unfazed which is a glorious thing. He also has a current Test average of 64 with more than 1,000 runs after ten matches. His nerveless 75 in the run chase on home turf at Yorkshire was crucial. The Ashes will always be a place for new stars to be born and the 24-year-old showed a maturity reminiscent of a kid playing back garden cricket rather than in a must-win game.

Mitch Marsh might have thought his Test match days were far behind him until he got an opportunity after Cameron Green’s injury. Marsh batted at Leeds in the style of someone who was going to let rip. Damn the consequences. It worked a treat and should have won the Ashes for his team. The cautious approach of Australia’s batsmen in the second innings, with big errors from Labuschagne and Smith, let England back in to save the day.

This Ashes series is still alive and it deserves another match that could go to the wire. England’s all-out approach will not change. Age is just a number in a series where young twentysomethings have not had much of a look-in. 22-year-old Todd Murphy looks like a secondary school student and has been dropped accordingly. Australia are going big on experience.

Whatever the result of this series, England’s bowlers will feel like a long rest but may still have plenty to give for one last lap at the Oval. “Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire,” Samuel Johnson mused. Dad’s Army can still keep the home fires burning if the scoreline is 2-2 with one to play.