Australia skipper Pat Cummins has revealed his team’s bowling attack for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (ICC WTC) final against India. The match is scheduled to begin on Wednesday (June 7) at the Oval in London.
The right-arm pacer has revealed that Scott Boland will be playing the game ahead of Michael Neser who recently replaced Josh Hazlewood in the squad. The revelation from Pat Cummins has all but confirmed Australia’s playing eleven for the huge game.
Boland has made a sensational start to his Test career. The pacer has picked up 28 wickets in 7 Tests so far. His bowling average of 13.42 is the lowest of any player who has bowled at least 1000 deliveries in the longest format of the game since the start of the 20th century.
Boland was widely expected to replace injured Hazlewood but many believed that Michael Neser’s recent performances in the County Championship might help him get the nod. The fast-bowler has picked up 19 wickets in 5 games in addition to scoring a century while plying his trade for Glamorgan. However, Australia have decided to reward Boland for his performance in international cricket.
Pat Cummins on Australia’s bowling attack:
Speaking on Australia’s playing XI, Pat Cummins made it clear that there would be “no surprises” in the team for the one-off clash against Team India. The pacer stated that Australia’s team would revert to its familiar balance of five batsmen, an allrounder, wicket, three pacers and a spinner.
“We’re big on kind of everyone bowling slightly differently,” Cummins told reporters.
“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,” he added.
Australia XI for WTC final:
David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
Australia squad:
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner
India squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat