Australian captain Pat Cummins has confirmed the inclusion of Scott Boland in their playing eleven for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against India on June 7th at The Oval. Right-arm seamer Scott Boland has pipped Michael Neser in the eleven as Cummins, the third frontline quick in the line-up, stated that he offers something slightly different to Josh Hazlewood.
Hazlewood failed to recover from his injury in time for the WTC final as Michael Neser bolted in the squad as his injury replacement. Neser got the nod after his impressive returns with both bat and ball for Glamorgan in county cricket. However, Boland has been impressive in his seven Tests, taking 28 scalps and blew away England on his debut.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Cummins believes that all the bowlers must operate differently and reckons Boland's ability to hit the same area consistently should help them significantly.
"We're big on kind of everyone bowling slightly differently. Scott is a seam bowler on a good length, but he just offers something slightly different to Joshy Hazlewood, and Starcy being a left hander is bit different. So I don't think there's ever a pecking order. You think about the three guys that you want to go out and play. Someone like Scotty, it's just a really simple game-plan – you hit your good areas and you stay there all day and hopefully the ball will do the work for you."
Pat Cummins confident about Cameron Green's fitness:
With the Ashes series starting on June 16th, Cummins expects the fast bowlers to bowl a lot in the early part of the tour and Cameron Green sharing the load later.
"You would think the fast bowlers are probably going to bowl more overs at the start (of the tour), and Greeny ends up taking a bit more of a load towards the end of the series. That normally naturally pans out that way anyway. Greeny is available, he is fit, but it is probably not in our interest to burn him and put 40 overs into him in a game, which is a conversation we have pretty much before every Test match, and he has never really red-lined so far."
Green had a stellar IPL 2023 season for the Mumbai Indians, smashing over 450 runs, including a hundred.
