Pace depth puts selectors at ease to ponder changes

Australia's remarkable returns from their rookie fast bowlers could once again embolden selectors to go into a day-night Ashes Test with a sole pace mainstay flanked by two greenhorns.

Selector Tony Dodemaide admits Mitchell Starc's ability to play a fifth consecutive Test will be a discussion point ahead of Friday's series finale in Hobart, while there is no guarantee over Scott Boland's spot despite a historically dominant start to his Test career.

Jhye Richardson is nipping at the incumbents' heels having been put on ice with shin soreness after bowling Australia to victory with a maiden five-wicket haul on the final day of the second Test against England in Adelaide. 

Starc is the leading contender to be the player of the series with 15 victims at 26.90 plus 151 runs at 75.50, and is Test cricket's all-time leading wicket-taker with the pink ball.

But his solitary wicket in the SCG Test continued a statistical trend of Starc's that suggests the left-armer becomes less effective towards the end of long Test series.

Another consideration for selectors is a packed upcoming fixture of Tests (all-format tours of Pakistan in March-April and Sri Lanka in June-July), white-ball internationals (matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka begin later this month) and the Indian Premier League (April), with Starc in line to feature in all three.

"It's one of the conversations that we will have," Dodemaide said of Starc's fitness.

"He is a key asset for us with a heavy schedule coming up, not only in the white-ball (games) but also the tours that will come up soon afterwards.

"It's certainly a conversation that we will need to have to see how he pulls up. He's in some really great form both with bat and ball. So we'll certainly take that into consideration.

"We haven't seen the (Hobart) pitch yet … so we'll take a few things into account."

What will not be an issue for selectors, Dodemaide told reporters, would be the inexperience of an attack without Starc for the fifth Test.

Australia were forced at the eleventh hour into fielding one of their least credentialled bowling line-ups of recent times in Adelaide when captain Pat Cummins was deemed a close contact of a COVID-19 case on the morning of the match.

The absence of Josh Hazlewood to a side injury had meant pace stocks were already depleted.

But Richardson, debutant Michael Neser and young allrounder Cameron Green all held their own alongside old-stagers Starc and Nathan Lyon to break England's resistance in the final session of the match.

Selectors are awaiting a full medical report from the SCG Test but Dodemaide is confident Richardson, who took seven wickets in a Sheffield Shield match in Hobart earlier this season, is recovering well from a shin complaint that was a factor in his omission for the last two Tests.

"We've now got a lot of confidence in the fast bowling group that we have," said Dodemaide. "I'm sure that whoever we choose now (will do well).

"Jhye is coming along really well. He took five-for in a pink-ball game in Adelaide only a couple of weeks ago, and also in the last Shield game that he had down here he performed extremely well.

"So we think we've got absolutely the depth to be able to cover (Starc's absence) if that was the case."

Boland's stunning returns have further highlighted the depth of Australia's pace stocks, snaring 14 wickets in his first two Tests to vindicate selectors' surprise move to blood the workhorse in Melbourne and Sydney.

The 32-year-old currently has the best bowling average in Test history (minimum 10 wickets) with his 8.64 eclipsing an 89-year record held by England's Charles Marriott who took 11 wickets at 8.72 in a solitary 1933 Test.

But Boland's first-class record at Blundstone Arena (13 wickets at 64.00 from eight matches) is less impressive than his returns at the MCG (98 wickets at 24.43) and the SCG (22 wickets at 19.86), while a rib cartilage injury could dampen his retentions chances further.

"He's in a real purple patch, isn't he?" said Dodemaide. "It's fantastic for him. Not only for us as a team but it's an amazing story that with him and his (Indigenous) background. It's been great for Australian cricket on a number of levels.

"In terms of a pecking order, we just consider we've got a really strong group of bowlers.

"We've got Mitch and Patty Cummins, Josh Hazlewood… but I think underneath that we've got a got a really strong group who are very competitive for places, and that's a really good place to be."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nic Maddinson, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: Match drawn

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena