Aussie Test great Brett Lee is a big fan of Scott Boland – but believes selectors should drop the talented Victorian once Josh Hazlewood is back to full fitness.
Boland was Australia’s leading light across the first two days of the decisive fifth Test against India at the SCG, returning the second-best figures of his Test career (4-31) in a sparkling first innings.
In the second, Boland bowled both Indian openers before snaring the wicket of Virat Kohli for a fifth time in as many Test matches facing the superstar ex-captain.
‘This guy (Boland) is a freak,’ said fast-bowling great Lee, inducted into Cricket NSW’s hall of fame on Saturday.
‘His action makes him good, his consistency, his temperament. And he’s under the radar. He’s literally the world’s nicest guy, he doesn’t ask for the accolades, and he catches people off guard.’
But if not for side and calf injuries to Josh Hazlewood, Boland would almost certainly not have featured in three of the five Border-Gavaskar Trophy Tests this summer.
Brett Lee (pictured) believes selectors should drop the Victorian once Josh Hazlewood is back to full fitness
Scott Boland (pictured) was outstanding across the first two days of the decisive fifth Test against India
The Victorian has played 13 matches in the baggy green but has only once been selected when ‘big three’ pacemen Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins have all been fit.
Boland’s heroic efforts on a fiendish SCG wicket will inevitably renew discussions as to his place in the fast-bowling hierarchy.
But Lee, who has taken the fifth-most Test wickets of any Australian quick, felt the ‘big three’ were still the foremost fast-bowling talents available to selectors.
‘My gut says you have to pick those three guys every day of the week,’ he said.
‘Starc and Cummins are obviously playing now because they’re fully fit but if Hazlewood gets his fitness back and is ready to play, unfortunately you have to go with Josh Hazlewood, and when I say unfortunately, unfortunately for Scott Boland.
‘A fit Josh Hazlewood gets into any Test line-up, in my opinion. What do you do when three doesn’t go into four? It’s a tough one.’
Lee likened Boland’s predicament to that of retired leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, who was consistently beaten to the selection table by the legendary Shane Warne during his own career.
MacGill took 208 wickets at 29.02 across his 44 Tests, 11 of which came when Warne served a year-long drug suspension. Another four of MacGill’s caps followed Warne’s retirement in early 2007.
The Victorian has played 13 matches in the baggy green but has only once been selected when ‘big three’ pacemen Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins have all been fit
Only 16 times was there room in the XI for both MacGill and fellow spinner Warne, whose status as first-choice spinner of his generation yielded 145 Test caps.
‘It’s a bit like MacGill and Warne, that’s probably the best analogy I could say,’ said Lee, a former Test teammate of MacGill’s.
‘Stuart MacGill took 200 Test wickets as a back-up bowler to Shane Warne. But he wasn’t a back-up bowler, he was a number one spinner anywhere in the world.
‘I think Boland’s got that same unlucky thing, being born at the wrong time when Australian fast-bowling is so good, so strong.’
