Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland are not so much raging against the dying of the light as they are defying it dying at all.

But a jam-packed run of as many as 21 Test matches across the next 12 months may very well prove to be the ‘Last Dance’ for Australia’s fearsome foursome of fast bowlers.

Just as the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls did in a 1997-98 NBA season made globally famous by a smash-hit documentary series two decades later, the quartet will be aiming to defy their advancing age to stay on top of the world.

A low-key two-Test home series against Bangladesh, which begins in Darwin next Thursday, will mark the start of Australia’s unrelenting run of red-ball cricket.

The side will soon have the chance to erase any lingering doubts over their greatness by conquering their final frontiers in India and England, both of which they will visit for five-Test series next year.

In between, they will play three five-dayers in South Africa — marking their first visit since the 2018 sandpaper scandal — host New Zealand for four more and play their part in the one-off Sesquicentennary Test against England under lights at the MCG.

If they continue to win enough, they will also have their chance to feature in what would be a third consecutive World Test Championship final and atone for last year’s shock loss to the Proteas.

As chief selector George Bailey has forecast, Australia’s quicks will almost certainly have to swallow their pride and accept some rest and rotation throughout the period.

You would not have known it from their herculean efforts in last summer’s Ashes, but Boland and Starc are the oldest members of the legendary quartet, figuring at 37 and 36 years of age respectively.

Meanwhile, Hazlewood — who has been wracked by injury in the back half of his career — is 35, and the captain Cummins, who featured only once in a 4-1 triumph over England due to a flare-up of back stress, is 33.

Despite Boland having emerged as the brightest of breakout stars, the contemporary he profiles most similarly to in Hazlewood has retained his place in Australia’s XI when fit, save for the 2023 WTC final when he was short of match rhythm.

But that may change about to change, with Bailey earlier this month saying the Victorian had established a compelling argument to be considered an all-conditions lock through his consistent brilliance.

“Scotty would never say it, but I think he’s mounting a strong case that when you use the words ‘the big three’, that he could be one of those,” Bailey said last month.

“Our planning is that across the 21 Tests there will be different times when there will be different names and a different line-up.

“We’re not so much forecasting, in terms of mapping out that they’ll miss certain games. The conditions and the outcomes will dictate that a little bit as well.”

Speaking from a pre-Bangladesh series camp in Brisbane on Thursday, Hazlewood said he would “love to play more with Scotty”.

“We’re obviously a little bit similar, but I think there’s still a lot of differences in our bowling,” Hazlewood said.

“Every time he’s come in, he’s done unbelievably well. His career just keeps getting better and better the older he gets.

“I think there’s enough opportunities in the next 12-18 months for us to play a lot of cricket hopefully together, that’d be a nice one to tick off.”

Hazlewood said the side’s three away assignments on the horizon represented their chance .

“This group’s been together for quite a long time now — the majority of it, anyway —and the big series are obviously England and India,” Hazlewood said.

“I haven’t won in South Africa either, so there’s three that are coming up . . . a few boxes to tick off there — not just me, (but) this whole playing group.”