Boland's Phenomenal Performance and the Roar of the SCG

Cricket fans are lamenting the lack of Tests that Scott Boland has been able to play in his career after the Victorian destroyed India at the SCG on Friday – and again on Saturday. Boland took 4-31 off 20 overs – going at just 1.55 per over – as Australia bowled the tourists out for just 185 in the first dig. He backed it up with 6-45 in the second innings before Australia won the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in 10 years, completing a 3-1 series victory in Sydney. In 13 career Test matches, Boland has 56 wickets at an extraordinary average of 17.66. There were stunning scenes at the SCG on Friday when the Sydney crowd gave Boland a standing ovation as he headed down to the boundary at one stage. As Brad Haddin pointed out in commentary for Triple M, it was a rare sight to see a Sydney crowd give such adoration to a Victorian. The Test team has predominantly featured NSW bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the better part of the last decade, meaning Sydney crowds have rarely seen paceman from outside their home state. "Everyone in NSW is on their feet for a Victorian, this is a rare day," Haddin said. "Scotty Boland once again, he puts pressure on the new batsman and makes them play." The roar of the crowd was deafening when Boland dismissed Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy in consecutive balls, and even more so when he steamed in for the hat-trick ball. He narrowly missed three-in-three, but the reaction and Boland's performance will make him hard to drop when Hazlewood is fit again.

Boland's Late Bloom and the Critics' Praise

At age 35, time is running out for the Victorian. As many have pointed out, he would have played many more Tests if he wasn't playing in an era where Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood have dominated with such longevity. Starc had taken 373 Test wickets before the SCG Test kicked off, while Hazlewood had 279 and Cummins 289. The pace cartel have hardly missed any Tests in the last decade, meaning Boland hasn't been given the opportunity he deserves. West Indian great Ian Bishop wrote on social media on Friday: "Absolute pity that Scott Boland could not debut in Test cricket until he was nearly 33 years of age." Another pundit wrote: "Scott Boland could legit be one of the best pace bowlers of all time. Its a shame he started in the Australian team at an advanced age (for a fast bowler)."

The Boland Paradox: A Star Undervalued?

sport has adopted this archaic outlook. Boland is never seen to have been dropped when Hazelwood plays. The way Boland is playing, some might say he deserves the spot more than Hazelwood in some venues. But, if their 3 pacers are fit and fine, Boland doesn't play. Boland's 4-31 on the opening day in Sydney not only put Australia on the path to regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but it potentially extended his own Test career. There's a compelling case for him to be part of Australia's first-choice XI moving forward, even when Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood are all fit. In the past 60 years, the only Australian fast bowler to play beyond his 36th birthday is Glenn McGrath. Boland will reach that mark in April, and he could join McGrath if he's picked for the Ashes next summer. With Hazlewood injured and Cummins likely to skip the upcoming Sri Lanka tour due to the birth of his second child, Boland will remain in the Aussie XI alongside Starc and two spinners. But selectors will face a tricky call for the likely World Test Championship final in June and the Ashes next summer. "He's a difficult customer, Scotty," teammate Beau Webster said after play on Friday. "If there is anything in the wicket he finds it. And if there is nothing in the wicket he still manages to find a way through."

The Future of Australian Pace Bowling: A Selection Headache

As Scott Boland continues to impress the world with his bowling, the burning question around cricket circles now is whether he should be a permanent fixture in the Test side. Since his debut in 2021 where he mesmerised the MCG and England by taking six wickets in an innings, Boland has been as consistent as anyone. But the presence of Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins means he can barely get a look in. The only time he really does is when Hazlewood's fitness issues arise. But with 19 wickets at an average of 14.42 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy ahead of the end of the fifth Test, Boland is really banging the door down. With the Ashes next year, Boland's name is more than certain to be part of every squad. Whether he's in the XI remains to be seen but coach Andrew McDonald confirmed "he's always a genuine consideration". "Every time he pitches up in Australian colours he delivers," he told reporters on Saturday. "We're lucky to have those four quicks in Hazlewood, Cummins, Starc and Boland and the ability to keep them fit all together gives us options and we're not surprised by Scotty's performances. Every time he plays he does the job well. His ability to be relentless on a length and move the ball both ways is proving difficult and in particular on this surface." Scott Boland is Australian cricket's poster boy on so many levels. Since the Victorian took 6-7 on debut, he's been the poster boy of the ever-parochial MCG. Now his 10-76 for the fifth-and-final Test has made him the poster boy of the SCG. As a 35-year-old, he's also the poster boy of the conundrum facing the Australian selectors. It's a team with an average age that's the wrong side of 30, with only 19-year-old tyro Sam Konstas below that age. Even the newest player in the team, debutant allrounder Beau Webster, is 31. But there's a reason why all those older players are in the team – they've performed for Australia on the top stage. That makes them hard to drop. You could call it the Boland paradox. Every time he's picked, he performs. With Boland, it's almost a double paradox because he'd be in the first XI of every other team in the world. But in Australia, it takes an injury to Josh Hazlewood, or one of the other quicks, for him to even get a game. Hazlewood (33) has 279 Test wickets at an average of 24.57. Mitchell Starc (34) has 373 at 27.78. Pat Cummins (31) 289 at 22.54. It's a similar story when you look at the batters – Steve Smith (35), Usman Khawaja (38), Travis Head (31) and Marnus Labuschagne (30) have all performed during the reclaiming of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Smith is stuck on 9999 career Test runs and scored centuries in both Brisbane and Melbourne. Head scored two centuries during the series – and was in the middle when Webster hit the winning runs at the SCG. Khawaja has had well-documented problems against India captain Jasprit Bumrah, but he scored important runs in the second-innings run chase at the SCG and in Melbourne. He's said he wants to go out David Warner-style – following next summer's Ashes Test at the SCG. (Although former Aussie captain Michael Clarke has called for him to give it away following the win in Sydney.) Labuschagne has had similar problems, but did score three 50s for the series. That makes it hard to replace them. But it's a dilemma that will increasingly face the Aussie selectors with every passing Test match. With the squad for the upcoming two-Test tour of Sri Lanka to be named in the coming days it will again be an issue facing chief selector George Bailey. He needs to avoid them all retiring – or completely losing form or fitness – at once, leaving him with a team of rookies. Given the age profile of the team, that's looking increasingly difficult to do. It means he needs to start blooding generation next. And perhaps Clarke is right – he needs to start doing it now.