Australia pacer Scott Boland talked about whether Mitchell Starc will be ready to play in the second Test against India in Delhi which begins on February 17. Australia has lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs and are 0-1 down in the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 series.
Australia had missed two of their frontline pacers in Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc along with all-rounder Cameron Green in the first Test due to injuries. Starc had injured his finger during the South Africa Test series at home and missed the third Test as he couldn’t bowl without a splint.
Starc had confirmed that he will miss the first Test against India in Nagpur during the Cricket Australia players’ awards and hoped that he would play in the second Test in Delhi. With the Arun Jaitley Stadium assisting spin as well, it is expected that Australia might play only two pacers with Pat Cummins being one of them.
Scott Boland, who played in place of Starc and Hazlewood in Nagpur was asked about the same and he said that he hadn’t seen Starc bowl and not sure whether he would play in Delhi.
“We don’t know. I’m not sure. I haven’t seen Starcy bowl. I’m not sure if he’s going to be right to play. I assume he is if he’s over here. I don’t think we’re going to play three fast bowlers. There’s only going to be two spots up for grabs, I reckon,” Starc was quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
“I felt like I bowled well, but when you are bringing in someone like Mitchell Starc, who is a gun in these conditions and has bowled really well in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, hopefully I made the selectors job a little bit tougher than what it originally was. In places like here, it is tough to judge [how you went] as a fast bowler but I think I contributed to our game plan and I played my role pretty well,” Boland added.
Starc’s reverse swing threat would be a major temptation for the selectors in Delhi as would his ability to create rough outside the right-hander’s off stump when bowling over the wicket, which will significantly aid Murphy and Nathan Lyon.
Think We Wanted To Come In With The Quicks And Use Reverse Swing: Andrew Mcdonald On Use Of Scott Boland
Coach Andrew McDonald did not think Boland was under bowled in the innings despite appearing to be Australia’s second-best bowler behind Murphy.
“I think we wanted to come in with the quicks and use reverse swing. We probably didn’t get as much reverse as we thought and nor did they. There wasn’t as much reverse on offer but definitely Scott did the role we expected him to do. He allowed the spinners to be well-placed, and we knew that we were going to have combinations where Scotty would bowl with the spinner down the other end and there was going to be other periods where the spinners would bowl together,” McDonald said.