Australia head coach Andrew McDonald admitted seamer Scott Boland hasn’t done anything wrong in the chances he’s got with the Test team, saying he has given selectors a headache when picking the playing eleven for the highly-anticipated Ashes.
Boland played a key role in Australia bowling out India for 234 on day five of the World Test Championship Final at The Oval, taking out Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in quick succession to set the base for a 209-run victory.
The seamer took five wickets overall in the match after Australia preferred to pick him over Michael Neser with Josh Hazlewood unavailable due to injuries. Ahead of the first Ashes Test starting from June 16 at Edgbaston, Australia have to make a selection call between Boland and Hazlewood vying for a spot in the playing eleven.
“He’s done everything that he can. Every time he’s stepped out in the Australian cap, he’s, he’s been nothing short of amazing and he continued that in the World Test Championship final.”
“He’s put some pressure on the selectors to hold his spot in that team. But we also understand that it is five Test matches and across that journey, we can’t expect Scott to be able to play all five either,” McDonald was quoted as saying by SEN Radio.
Asked about Hazlewood, who missed the WTC Final due to Achilles and side issues, McDonald said, “Yeah, at this stage, everything’s gone well. As I said, we’ll make some decisions tomorrow and Pat will be in a position to announce that final XI tomorrow.”
“He had his final hit out today, and like anything, we always see how they wake up the morning after the main session. We’ve had all of our meetings, all of our plannings are done, all our hypothetical scenarios.”
“The selectors will be in a position along with Pat to inform everyone of what that first XI looks like and we’re excited by the opportunity that presents for that.”
McDonald pointed out that given the short turnarounds across the five-Test series, discussions have been taking place over the make-up of a fast-bowling line-up for every match.
“We’ve got some decisions around our fast bowlers throughout the five Test matches in the Ashes. That’ll be no different leading into this Test match as it will be pretty much every Test match.”
“It’ll be debated, there are short turnarounds, and it’s going to be quite a physical and mental task for the fast bowlers to be able to get through five Tests plus the extra World Test Championship. It’s six Test matches in that condensed period, so we’ve got some decisions to make, and they’ll be relevant across the journey of the five Ashes Test matches.”
With Australia having four fast-bowlers apart from all-rounders Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh with Michael Neser on standby, McDonald disclosed the team is going into the Ashes with a squad mentality and expectations of different selections to be made across the series.
“We’ve set it up like we normally do. We do have that squad mentality and that’s genuine in every series. We go to the subcontinent and fast bowlers miss out and spinners take up the lead and it’s no different here.”
“The conditions will steer us in a direction but also the constraints around the turnaround time in terms of how long we do have in between games. We frame it like we do every other series, we’re not changing the way that we go about our work just because it’s an Ashes and every Test match is important. The demands that are put in front of you with short turnarounds really steer you to make different decisions at different times,” he concluded.
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