Scott Boland will replace the injured Josh Hazlewood in the eleven for the Adelaide Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against India, as announced by Australia skipper Pat Cummins along with the playing eleven, cricket.com.au reported. This is the first match for Boland in the past more than 18 months as far as Australia is concerned. Skipper Cummins also confirmed that Mitchell Marsh will be fit to bowl in the Adelaide Test, according to cricket.com.au. The last match Boland played was against England in the prestigious Ashes 2023 series. This place goes to the 35-year-old from Josh Hazlewood, who suffered an injury during the Perth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy..
On the other hand, Marsh has been added to the playing eleven even after battling with back stiffness, which stopped him from bowling at full tilt during India’s second innings in the Perth Test, as per cricket.com.au.
Cummins said at the pre-match press conference that it’s “pretty awesome,” for someone like Scott Boland to find a spot in the squad.
“It’s pretty awesome for someone like Scotty to come straight in,” Cummins was quoted by cricket.com.au as saying.
Meanwhile, India are yet to name their playing eleven for the upcoming pink-ball Test.
December 6 will mark the start of the Adelaide test, where India come into the contest with that much mental and physical edge over the devastated Australians, who indeed were left dismal by Bumrah’s bowling and captaincy, after being beaten by a margin of 295 runs at Perth’s Optus Stadium in the first Test.
They would not want to rack up the ghosts of the 2020 Adelaide pink-ball Test: their lowest Test score of 36 saw them bundled out. Nightmarishly, that started their series; Pat Cummins (4/21) and Josh Hazlewood (5/8) had run riot over the Indian line-up in the second innings, targeting an easy 90 to chase.
Australia Playing XI for the Second Test: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (WK), Pat Cummins (C), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
