Boland secures his place among cricket's great names

Even if Scott Boland never again sets foot on a Test arena – a scenario that would seem unthinkable given his stunning introduction to this summer's Ashes contest – he is guaranteed a permanent place on the game's all-time honour board.

Boland finished the Vodafone Series with 18 wickets at an average of 9.55, Australia's third-most potent bowler of the campaign despite not playing the first two Tests and with more scalps than any rival in the England line-up.

In the process, Boland repeatedly rewrote 145 years of Test history, most conspicuously by becoming just the second men's player in that time to complete three Tests with 18 wickets or more and an average in single digits.

However, as Australia continued celebrating their Ashes triumph, captain Pay Cummins offered no immediate guarantee the 32-year-old would figure in Australia's upcoming Test campaigns to Pakistan (February-March) and Sri Lanka (June).

While COVID-19 protocols dictate teams travel with larger-than-usual squads to ensure ready availability of like-for-like substitutes, the even stricter nature of Australia's security 'bubble' for their first Pakistan visit in almost 25 years should ensure they keep squad numbers as lean as possible.

The recent form of pace-bowling allrounders Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh is also likely to squeeze the number of genuine quicks on those tours, with Australia's most recent Test campaigns on the subcontinent (India and Bangladesh in 2017) each featuring just three genuine quicks.

As cricket.com.au reported earlier this month, pitches in Pakistan are unlikely to resemble the spin-friendly tracks in India and Bangladesh, or even those in the UAE where Australia took four specialist fast bowlers for their 2018 series against Pakistan.

But with Josh Hazlewood certain to return to the reckoning alongside Cummins and Mitchell Starc after missing the last four Ashes Tests with a side strain, Boland will be vying with fellow seamers Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser if selectors decide four or more pace bowlers are required.

"It's still a bit of water to go under the bridge," Cummins said in the aftermath of Australia's fifth Test win in Hobart about selection calls ahead.

"Joshy Hazlewood is one of the best bowlers in the world, so it's going to be pretty hard for him not to have a place in our starting eleven.

"But international cricket is hard work, you need to build a squad of fast bowlers and I feel like we've got that between Jhye, Scott and Michael Neser as well.

"We're really well-suited ... I'm lucky as captain, plenty of options."

With the best strike rate of any Australia bowler in their first three Tests (minimum 10 wickets), Boland's record of a breakthrough every 27 deliveries suggests he adapted to the elite format as seamlessly as his unruffled on-field demeanour would suggest.

But the Victoria veteran has revealed the step-up to five-day cricket has taken a toll, and it wasn't only his domination of England's best batters – he dismissed rival skipper Joe Root four times in six innings – that surprised him.

"I thought it was obviously going to be (physically) harder than Shield cricket, especially with the extra day but I found it mentally really hard," he said prior to the final Ashes Test starting in Hobart.

"I've been getting to the end of the game and I've been just drained.

"I don't feel like I've been able to switch off as well as I've been able to in Shield cricket, whereas when we're batting in a Shield game, I can sort of relax.

"But I just haven't been able to relax at all during the games, I've been pretty much nervous the whole time.

"I'm not sure if it's shown but I very much have been, and I definitely didn't expect to take wickets the way I have so far."

Regardless of whether Boland adds to the three unforgettable Test appearances that will surely define his career, one fact remains glaringly apparent.

If the humble, quietly spoken 32-year-old known to most of his teammates as 'Barrel' is to sit comfortably alongside the cohort of cricket luminaries with whom he already shares an exalted place, he's going to need a more flamboyant nickname.

That's because, among the roll-call of honours earned by Boland – a descendant of the Gulidjan nation in western Victoria – is recognition as the second player of Indigenous heritage to represent Australia's men's Test team after Kamilaroi man Jason 'Dizzy' Gillespie.

It's unlikely he will emulate Gillespie by also becoming just the second Australia nightwatchman to post a Test double-hundred, although he has already slipped into that role despite his belief the team's usual batter shield, Nathan Lyon, would be reluctant to surrender the unsought-after job.

"It got raised on day one of (my) first Test, when Nathan asked me," Boland recalled of the Melbourne Test where England were bowled out late on day one, and before he was unexpectedly asked to replace Lyon in the role on the second night at Hobart.

"I was like 'yeah, I can do it if you like' but then he said 'no, you can put your feet up ... I'll go and do it'.

"I don't think (he'd give it up).

"I think he's given it up for New South Wales, but I think he's at home going out there in the Test matches."

Having received his Baggy Green Cap from Hazlewood on Boxing Day at the MCG, Boland became (at age 32 years 259 days) the oldest fast bowler to debut for Australia in Tests since 34-year-old Colin 'Funky' Miller.

However, while Miller - who rose to Test ranks on Australia's most recent visit to Pakistan in 1998 – did share the new ball with Glenn McGrath in his maiden series, he reverted to bowling off-spin for the bulk of his overs.

There has been no suggestion Boland is considering adding spin to his bowling repertoire in the month before the Pakistan touring party departs, in a bid to further bolster his selection prospects.

Upon claiming his 10th wicket in the second Ashes Test at the SCG (then average 8.72), Boland supplanted Englishmen Charles 'Father' Marriott (8.72) and Fred 'Nutty' Martin (10.07) as bowlers boasting the lowest averages with a minimum double-figure wickets tally.

Like Boland, both those men received Test caps late in their cricket journeys which explains why they played so few matches and therefore finished their bowling days with such low averages.

Marriott was 37 when named for his first Test at The Oval in 1933, having already served on the western front in World War I where he was injured then gassed, and returned to England suffering from shellshock that left him sensitive to exposure to bright light.

Having studied at Cambridge and embarked on a career as a modern languages teacher, Marriott's cricket duties were restricted to school holidays and he played just one Test (taking 11-96) before retiring and then serving as an anti-aircraft gunner in World War II.

Martin was one of eight children born into an ironmongering family on London's outreaches, and his Test call-up came at the comparatively spry age of 29 after a lengthy county cricket apprenticeship with Kent.

The 6-50 and 6-52 he snared in the 1890 Ashes Test at The Oval saw him become the only bowler to capture a pair of five-fors on debut until Bob Massie's Lord's miracle 82 years later, but the only other international match he played after that was an 'unofficial' Test in South Africa in 1892.

That game was retrospectively awarded Test status after Martin's death aged 60 in 1921, causing his bowling average 'blow out' from 8.5 to 10.07.

And the only Test bowler to have captured at least 18 wickets in his first three Tests at a lower average than Boland's current 9.55 is former Australia seamer Charles 'Terror' Turner whose return after a trio of matches was 29 at 8.55.

While there are reported similarities in Boland's easy, rhythmic approach to the crease and his ability to extract sharp movement and subtly change pace, nobody has yet described his action as "poetry" or declared his victims were "skittled by a sonnet" as was written about Turner.

Boland will also be hopeful his Test tenure is not ended in similarly discourteous fashion to the 'Terror' who, after flattening England at the SCG with figures of 3-18 and 4-33 thereby dragging Australia to the brink of an Ashes triumph in 1894-95, was dumped by selectors for the next match.

He never again represented his country.

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

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

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Sam Billings, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, 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: Australia won by 146 runs