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Opinion
The Boland Boulevarde of Bewilderment needs to be in full effect when the Ashes gets underway later this week after his superb performance in Australia’s dominant win over India.
Boland was a big factor in changing the game in both innings with the ball for Australia with his unerring accuracy and total commitment to getting the basics right with every single delivery.
I can’t see Boland not playing the Poms unless he doesn’t pull up well – he looked the most threatening of the quicks.
Pat Cummins is planning on playing every Test so that means Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood will miss out when the first ball is bowled for the Ashes at Edgbaston on Friday.
Scott Boland celebrates with teammates. (Photo by Gareth Copley-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Hazlewood’s apparently fit to go now so whichever way the selectors go for the series opener, I expect they’ll rotate him with Starc and Boland throughout the five matches jammed into six weeks.
The win over India in the WTC final was the culmination of a two-year mission for the Aussies.
After they missed out on the previous final to New Zealand due to over rate penalties, it’s so pleasing for the playing squad and the team management to get the job done this time around.
Not every player performed to their best but the overall domination was awesome. They ticked just about every box and it was a great hit-out before the Ashes even though it was an important standalone event in its own right.
There were some big plusses heading into the contests against England.
We know Steve Smith makes runs over there for fun but his knock in the first innings was yet another sign of his greatness.
It was a magnificently constructed Test innings – it was tough going early but he grinded it out, played a support role to Travis Head and then upped his scoring rate later.
Heady thoroughly deserved player of the match honours for his hundred. I said in the preview to this Test that he was doing Bazball before the Poms started doing it and if he can peel off three or four innings like this in the Ashes, it’ll go a long way towards Australia returning with the urn.
When he gets going, they are generally match-winning innings – we saw that in the last Ashes series in Australia. It’s so deflating for the opposition when they get the first three wickets and think they’re getting on top and then he counter-attacks at a run a ball.
India were off to a promising start after Head and Smith’s tons before Boland stepped in.
He shows no fatigue and does what we’re all taught from the under 12s on by just aiming all day at the top of off stump.
But then he has the subtle variations that bring elite batters undone. He can swing the ball and he’s using the wobble seam to great effect – the seam could be going towards slip or fine leg.
And that won’t be as effective if your line and length isn’t so precise. He controls that perfectly to put the ball right under the batter’s nose and they can’t change their shot. It’s unrelenting pressure.
He reminds me of Stuart Clark. Boland’s not quite as tall as Clark but he’s another late bloomer who came in and had a fantastic career in his early 30s after he’d paid his dues at Sheffield Shield level.
In the 06-07 Ashes he was probably bowler of the series and that’s in a team that had a few options that knew a thing or two about taking a wicket in Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Brett Lee.
Boland won’t end up with a 10-year career but he’s going to have a very good one at Test level because he’s had the ups and downs at state level, knows how to manage his body and knows what works when you’re trying to dislodge a batter who won’t throw their wicket away, which is what you come up against at the highest level.
If they drop Starc, it makes for a longer batting tail but that’s the trade-off the Aussies are going to have to take at some stage because Boland is playing so well.
Cameron Green. (Photo by Ryan Pierse-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Cummins made the bold call to open the bowling with Boland in the second innings and he was proved right. You know as a bowler when you’ve been relegated but this was more a promotion of a guy who couldn’t be denied the new ball.
The fielding for Australia was strange – I can’t remember ever seeing a greater variance between the easy ones that were put down and then the screamers that were taken.
I think Richard Kettleborough got it right with the Cameron Green call in the second innings. It’s always hard when it goes to the third umpire for a low catch like that unless there’s conclusive evidence but that won’t happen until the technology improves so we’ve got 3D coverage of the catches.
When the camera is looking at a catch like that from side on, it’s always going to look like the ball is touching the ground but it looked clear that he got his fingers under it and the interpretations they’ve got in place now are spot on. It shouldn’t matter if the ball grazes blades of grass when you take a catch like that because your fingers are under the ball.
Green didn’t quite get going with the bat but it was a handy match for him in that he took a few wickets and made his mark in the field.
We’ve got to remember it was his first match in English conditions so he will be better for the run in the Ashes.
And Alex Carey was a shining light in his maiden Test outing in the UK. His runs are going to be vital coming in at No.7 and his glovework was pretty much exemplary again.
Carey’s got the ability to go through the gears as a lower-order batter which is an important asset. He can stick around with the recognised batters when he first comes in and then blast off into T20 mode when he’s only got the tail left.
All in all, it was an impressive performance for Australia which will be a major confidence boost heading into the Ashes.