IND vs AUS Nagpur Test: With senior pacers including Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc ruled out, pacer Scott Boland is ready to grab his chance. Known for his ability to swing the ball, Boland is expected to take new ball responsibility for his team. To note, the visitors are set to take on India in the first Test match starting on February 9. Follow India vs Australia LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
IND vs AUS Nagpur Test: Scott Boland set to return in injured Josh Hazlewood & Mitchell Star absence, All you need to know about Australia’s new paceman, Check OUT
Neither does he have a back-bending toe-crusher like Mitchell Starc nor a mean bouncer like skipper Pat Cummins or his express pace. Josh Hazlewood’s unerring Glenn McGrath-like “top of off” accuracy is also not his speciality. But with a bowling speed hovering in the range of early to mid-130s, Boland, in his six Tests so far, has shown bustling energy and ability to hit the hard lengths unfailingly.
Come Thursday, the burly Victorian is all but certain to share the new ball with his skipper Cummins in the absence of Starc and Hazlewood, both out due to injuries. While he plays Sheffield Shield for Victoria, Boland, in Grade Cricket, captains a club with a pretty weird name — Frankston-Peninsula.
In fact, in an article published by abc.net.au, the club is described as the “least glamorous destination” in Victorian Premiership competition. The description of the location supplements the theory. “Its home ground sits awkwardly on a hill between the loading dock of a homemaker centre and the tracks of the little-used Stony Point railway line.”
Boland, who had a forgettable white-ball debut back in 2016 against India in one of the inconsequential bilateral money-spinners, actually could never have envisaged that he will have an Ashes debut on Boxing Day at his home ground.
IND vs AUS Nagpur Test: Scott Boland set to return in injured Josh Hazlewood & Mitchell Star absence, All you need to know about Australia’s new paceman, Check OUT 
At least that’s what his manager Nick Byrnes had told codesports.com.au. The website wrote, “You have just got to put your best foot forward, and you know, a few injuries … he told Boland in the tone of a reassuring uncle.”
Even his father Mick Boland said that leave alone figures of 6/7, they didn’t even see his debut coming. “No. not really … it all came about a bit unexpected. And then it came with a rush,” he had told codesports.com.au.
And a year before, a noted UK-based company, which used to be his bat sponsors, had decided to discontinue his sponsorship. May be they didn’t see any future in a 32-year-old back then.
Boland is not just any Australian cricketer but his presence in the set-up has deeper social context. Boland is only the second Indigenous male Test cricketer after Jason Gillespie to play for Australia. Boland represents the Gulidjan tribe from Colac in Victoria and he only came to know about his Indigenous heritage after his grand dad passed away.
IND vs AUS Nagpur Test: Scott Boland set to return in injured Josh Hazlewood & Mitchell Star absence, All you need to know about Australia’s new paceman, Check OUT
The Indigenous community hasn’t had much of a representation in mainstream international cricket and every time Boland crosses the boundary rope, he carries the hopes, aspirations, dignity of his community. In a four-part Amazon OTT documentary series ‘Test’, one would see that Boland walks into the Australian dressing room and his allocated seat is near the fridge and the coffee machine and not on the other side where he gets to sit as a senior Victorian cricketer. Skipper Cummins was seen saying in the commentary how he might not ever get a chance to play Test again after having toiled 12 years at first-class level to earn his Baggy Green.
Editors pick
