Test legend Brett Lee makes shock call for Aussies to drop bowler Scott Boland
- Lee says selectors should ax Boland once Hazlewood is fit
- Test Great believes selectors won’t have much choice
- Boland was excellent during the fifth Test against India
Aussie Test great Brett Lee is a big fan of Scott Boland but believes the selectors should drop the talented Victorian once Josh Hazlewood returns to full fitness.
Boland was Australia’s guiding light for 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 scintillating first innings.
In the second, Boland bowled both Indian openers before bagging the wicket of Virat Kohli for the fifth time in as many Test matches opposite the ex-superstar captain.
“This guy (Boland) is a freak,” said fast bowler Lee, who was 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 nicest guy in the world, he doesn’t ask for accolades, and he catches people off guard.”
But without 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 returns to full fitness
Scott Boland (pictured) was outstanding during the first two days of the decisive fifth Test against India
The Victorian has played 13 games in the baggy green but has only been selected once when ‘big three’ pacers Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins were all fit.
Boland’s heroic efforts on a devilish SCG wicket will inevitably renew discussions about his place in the fast-bowling hierarchy.
But Lee, who has taken the fifth most Test wickets of all Australian quicks, felt the ‘big three’ were still the most important fast bowling talents available to selectors.
“My gut feeling is you have to pick those three guys every day of the week,” he said.
“Starc and Cummins are obviously playing now because they are fully fit, but when 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 fits into any Test line-up in my opinion. What do you do when three doesn’t fit into four? It’s a difficult one.’
Lee compared Boland’s predicament to that of retired leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, who was consistently beaten on the selection table by the legendary Shane Warne during his own career.
MacGill took 208 wickets at 29.02 in his 44 Tests, 11 of which came while Warne was serving a year-long drug suspension. A further four MacGill caps followed Warne’s retirement in early 2007.
The Victorian has played 13 games in the baggy green but has only been selected once when ‘big three’ pacers Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins were all fit
Only sixteen times was there room in the XI for both MacGill and fellow spinner Warne, whose status as the first-choice spinner of his generation earned 145 Test caps.
“It’s a bit like MacGill and Warne, that’s probably the best analogy I can say,” said Lee, a former Test teammate of MacGill.
‘Stuart MacGill took 200 Test wickets as a back-up bowler to Shane Warne. But he was not a back-up bowler, he was a number one spinner anywhere in the world.
‘I think Boland has the same bad luck: being born at the wrong time, while Australian fast bowling is so good and so strong.’