Will Scott Boland feature for the Australian Test team again?
The 32-year-old was a Boxing Day bolter after Jhye Richardson bowled his heart out for two days straight to end the second Test in Adelaide.
Just two days after he was presented with his baggy green, Boland was the architect of England’s second innings collapse with six wickets for just seven runs.
However with Richardson rested up and Josh Hazlewood having sat out two Tests with a side strain, the Victorian may yet make way for the fourth Test in Sydney.
His state coach Chris Rogers could also have become a life member of the one-Test club, having notched just 19 runs against India at the WACA in 2008.
Rogers returned to the Test team in 2013 however, and retired with 2015 runs over 25 Tests, at an average of 42.87 with five centuries.
Even with the strength of the Australian bowling cartel, the former opener can’t see Boland joining that circle.
“I doubt that very much, now,” Rogers told SEN Breakfast.
“He looks like he has what it takes to succeed at that level. It’s going to be a tough selection for the next game, especially if Josh Hazlewood is fit.
“You bowl the house down like that, it’s pretty hard to be left out. I don’t envy the Australian selectors.”
Boland was the sixth quick selected for this series, not counting all-rounder Cameron Green who has seven wickets at an average of 11.
The tried-and-true trio of Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc lined up in the first Test in Brisbane.
Richardson came in for the former and bowled Australia to victory in Adelaide with 5/42 in the second innings.
Michael Neser was capped for the second Test and took two wickets at 30.50 after being rushed in for Cummins, the captain having been identified as a close contact of a COVID-positive.
It leaves Starc, who has a series-leading 14 wickets at 19.64, as the only fast bowler to have played in every Test so far this summer.
“I imagine with Mitch Starc, they might be thinking about resting him,” Rogers speculated.
“He’s played all three Test matches now, so whether they think ‘this is the right time to leave him out’ and play Scott, or Jhye as well…
“It’s hard to know, but the great thing is everyone’s bowling so well so there’s so many options.”
With that in mind, Rogers believes the selectors should be in no rush to bring back Hazlewood.
“If you come back too soon, you can do some real damage, so I think they’ll be quite conservative when it comes to his selection,” he warned.
Boland was preferred to Neser on the strength of his form at the MCG, where he has coaxed wickets out of a historically batter-friendly pitch.
Rogers doesn’t believe he should be pigeonholed as an ‘MCG specialist,’ however.
“His record is very good, it’s just that others have struggled on the MCG graveyard a little bit and he’s managed to be consistent there,” he explained.
“He’s definitely a bowler at the top of his game, someone who just understands the intricacies of being able to take wickets (and) work batters out.”
The Test team will travel to Pakistan for three matches in March, followed by two Tests in Sri Lanka and four Tests in India over the second half of the year.
Rogers believes Boland should be considered for selection in the subcontinent, where pitches offer less bounce and carry than the first-choice trio prefer.
“I think he wouldn’t let you down wherever you take him,” he predicted.
“Clearly George Bailey and Pat Cummins have spoken about him as being suited to specific pitches, (but) he’s a workhorse and he’d do a job wherever he went.”