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After he went wicketless in the first innings in Adelaide and saw his Test bowling average balloon out to above 10, the gags about Scott Boland’s future in the game looking uncertain came out.
And then within one over on Saturday night, his average was back down in single figures. He’s just sensational.
The thing I love most about Bolo is there are just no warm-up balls. The only reason he bowled that over was that Michael Neser pulled up a little lame in the previous over – Smith was talking to him and he just went, ‘I don’t know if I’m right’.
From ball one (literally) Boland’s ability to bowl that perfect line and length, straight into the ‘Bowling Boulevard of Bewilderment’ sets such a high standard. He hit the seam, moved the ball in and out – he was all over the West Indians, and gave the Aussies half a sniff of finishing it that night.
He was unlucky with that none-for in the first innings after bowling well. But that’s just a sign of how good Australia’s fast bowling depth is. No Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins for this Test, so Neser and Boland come in, one takes the wickets in the first innings and the other dominates in the second.
It makes you think: if Boland’s making this Kookaburra move, then what’s he going to do with the Dukes ball and its more pronounced seam when they head over to England next year?
He gets wickets in all different conditions over in Australia, so I can’t see that being any different in England. His only issue is that it’s hard to get a game when Cummins, Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are all fully fit. Starc is talking about playing some county cricket after just one Test on the last England tour, so that’s not going to hurt his chances of being picked either.
If Boland misses, though, you’ve got a potential matchwinner sitting on the bench.
In the immediate future, I’d have thought that even if Neser had got more wickets than him again in the second innings, Boland would be likelier to play against South Africa at the Gabba, because I don’t think Hazlewood will be fit in time. Cummins has been bowling in the warm-ups out on the ground in Adelaide, so that leans towards him being fine and leaves one spot up for grabs.
So Bolo’s more than likely going to get another Test – do well again, he’ll be well and truly putting pressure on for positions in the first-choice XI.
It will be interesting to see whether Australia rest and rotate the quicks a little bit during the South Africa series, especially Mitchell Starc. With Boland now, you know you’re not getting any release of pressure, so he might actually end up playing three or four of the Test matches, which is handy.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Selectors, when they pick their best team, want one or two players who are really unlucky. They’ll certainly have that for the rest of this summer.
Aside from Boland, the other standout from Day 3 was some really good DRS work from the Australians in both innings. Early on, Nathan Lyon was the only one who thought his LBW against Joshua da Silva was out. What I loved was that Steve Smith backed him and sent it upstairs, and was proved right.
There’s plenty of trust in that relationship, because Lyon’s really quick to, if there’s an LBW appeal, say whether it’s going down leg or was too high. You’ve got to get your reviews right in the modern game, and it’s a great boon for Smith and Cummins to have a senior player who has their trust, and who got it bang on here.
We saw a good one later on from Alex Carey off Mitchell Starc, too, to get Tagenarine Chanderpaul down the leg side. Really the only ones half-interested were Starc, Carey and Travis Head from on the boundary; once again Smith backed them, and it was the right call.
The DRS hasn’t always been Australia’s strongest suit, but with that going well and the balance of the bowling attack perfect, it’s just yet more layers on a completely dominant series.
Batting-wise, the big negative from their quick second innings was David Warner’s push to get a score of note this series failed again. He’s becoming a bit unlucky with drag-ons and other misfortunes.
I was a little bit concerned the Aussies might bat out the day and then stretch the game out, because then you have to bat another session on Day 4 because there’s no point declaring overnight in good batting conditions. Declaring midway through the last session was the proactive way to go about it, and they’ve been backed up by the bowlers.
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As long as they get the fourth-innings target near enough to 500, I think the Aussies are happy, and then obviously that gave them a real chance to have a crack at the West Indies under the lights, which obviously worked really well.
From the West Indies’ end, one of the few highlights has been Alzarri Joseph, who has got better as the series has gone on. That was a deserved three-wicket haul in the second innings, even though the Aussies were slogging a bit. The Windies just need to find at least one fast-bowling partner for him.
The other positive has been Chanderpaul, who has emerged as someone who should be able to open with Kraigg Brathwaite for a very long time.
The main thing that really let them down on Saturday was their running between the wickets. There were ‘only’ two run-outs, but there could have been half a dozen.
The miscommunication that led to Chanderpaul getting sent back by the nightwatchman Anderson Phillip and caught short was the worst of the two. You’ve got to be able to recognise that if there’s going to be a run out, it can’t be an established batter, it has to be the nightwatchman who takes the bullet.
Their running between the wickets was symbolic, really, of how their tour has gone on.
The Windies probably need another batsman that’s got defensive capabilities, and then they need to unearth a gun from somewhere. It doesn’t need to be a Brian Lara-level champion, but a gun bat who can average over 40 and score a bit quicker is essential for them to improve.
They’re coming out to Australia again next year – I don’t know how much Test cricket they’ve got in the meantime, but now they’ve had some experience over here and know what they’re up against, let’s hope they can get a bit of a stronger squad together for next summer.
Looking ahead to the South African series, it will be interesting to see how we get tested by a better team, particularly batting-wise. They haven’t really been challenged at all, aside from a few spells from Joseph, this summer, and I think we’re about to find out how they all go against genuine pace, against bowlers who send down a high percentage of short balls.
Even further ahead, England have a good attack as well – they might not play at the same time, but Mark Wood and Jofra Archer are extremely quick too. That batting order will have to face plenty of genuine pace over the next 12 months.
We’ll have to hope Travis Head and co. can continue to bat like that in the middle order, and hopefully some runs from Cam Green will be forthcoming. At least then we’ll know that the number six is locked in for the tours of India and England, and then we’ve got to work out who the spare batsman will be.
First someone who can play spin better for India needs to be found, and then someone else adapted to English conditions for that tour.