Consider that Scott Boland now has the best Test bowling average since the start of World War I, having carved his record into an even more incredible shape with the hat-trick he took in the Jamaican capital on Tuesday (AEST).
And now consider that same man has been dropped from the Australian Test side on seven occasions, making way four times for either Josh Hazlewood or Mitchell Starc, both of whom are all-time greats, and three times to allow for spin-heavy attacks.
Provided Pat Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and Nathan Lyon are fit for Australia’s next Test, the opening match of the home Ashes series, Boland will almost certainly again be relegated to carrying the drinks.
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It makes sense, yet at the same time it’s hard to believe.
As the sandy Caribbean dust settles on the West Indies series and attention turns to the home Ashes campaign, among the many tantalising questions is this: what are the chances of Australia picking four mainline quicks, and no Lyon, at some point over the summer?
Scott Boland celebrates taking a hat-trick in the third and final Test of the West Indies tour. AP
After the wild conclusion to the final Test in the West Indies, in which Australia rounded out a 3-0 whitewash with an attack featuring Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and Boland, and no Lyon, that very question was put to the skipper.
“I think any time you enter the conversation you remind yourself how good Nath is,” Cummins said in Kingston.
“All it takes is one partnership that you wish you’ve got Nathan for a change of pace in the game to crack it open.
“I’d say never say never, but [it’s] pretty unlikely that we ever go with the four [specialist quicks].”
As brilliant as Boland was in Kingston, and as phenomenal as he’s been in his 14-Test career, it’s unlikely that the big Victorian quick has leapfrogged Hazlewood, the Australian bowler he’s most similar to, in the pecking order.
Boland registered figures of 3-34 and 3-2 in the third Test. On the scarcely believable third and final day, which saw the West Indies fall over for just 27 runs, the second-lowest innings total in Test history, Boland took a hat-trick. He became the 10th Australian to do so and the first since Peter Siddle in 2010.
His Test record now reads like this: 14 matches, 62 wickets, an average of 16.53, a strike-rate of 36, and a best bowling innings of 6-7.
Of those who’ve bowled a minimum of 2000 balls in Test history, Boland’s average of 16.53 is the lowest since the beginning of World War I, when England’s Sydney Barnes, perhaps best described as a medium-paced spin bowler, ended his Test career in 1914 with an average of 16.43.
And of those in Test history who’ve bowled a minimum of 2000 balls, only George Lohmann, an English pace bowler from the 1880s and ’90s who on average claimed a victim every 34.19 balls, has a superior strike-rate to Boland’s 36.
The truth is Hazlewood had established himself as an exceptional Test bowler many years before Boland’s chance arrived, and it’s clear that Australia’s selectors place a huge price on the Bendemeer Bullet’s “runs on the board”.
Besides, Hazlewood was again terrific across the three Tests of the West Indies series, taking 14 wickets at an average of 14.42 and picking up a five-for in the first match.
Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc high-five each other during the third Test. AP
Still, Boland could get a run in the Ashes via way of rotation, injury, or, as mentioned earlier, selectors opting for a four-pronged pace attack.
If selectors were to go down that route in one of the matches, perhaps it would be most likely for the Gabba Test. The Brisbane Test will be a day-nighter, just as the third Test of the West Indies tour was, which Lyon sat out, and Lyon was only given one over with the ball in last summer’s day-night Test, hosted by Adelaide.
Having said that, Lyon’s Test record at the Gabba is only bettered by those of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. The off-spinner has taken 52 wickets in Brisbane at an average of 28.82.
Nathan Lyon appeals for a wicket in Sri Lanka in February. Getty
Alternatively, perhaps Australia could go with four mainline quicks for the first Test of the Ashes, to be hosted by Perth from November 21. The drop-in wickets used for Optus Stadium are fast and bouncy — in other words, a fast bowler’s paradise — just like the WACA pitches of old.
Australia’s selector on duty in Kingston, Tony Dodemaide, admitted it was “unusual” that the panel had gone with an all-pace attack.
Not since 2012 had Australia opted for four mainline pacemen and no specialist spinner. On that occasion, Starc, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus were picked to face India. That was in Perth, at the WACA, and Lyon, who was only nine Tests into his 139-Test career, made way for the quickies.
Could Australia’s brains trust be plotting an Ashes selection stunner?
