Cricket news: Pat Cummins backs Scott Boland to make Australia return, Sarfaraz Ahmed dropped for Pakistan | Boxing Day Test
Scott Boland is set to miss the Boxing Day Test for the first time in three years. But Pat Cummins has backed the Victorian to return to the Test arena, despite falling down the pecking order.
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Pat Cummins is confident Scott Boland will play for Australia again despite the paceman being left on the outer for the Boxing Day Test for the first time in three years.
The Aussies will take the field at the MCG on Tuesday without a Victorian in their XI after Cummins confirmed the team would be unchanged for the second Test against Pakistan.
It meant there was no room for Boland, who famously burst onto the scene by taking 6-7 in the second innings against England on debut during the corresponding Test two years ago.
A late starter in the Test arena, Boland will turn 35 in April and is clearly behind Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the pecking order.
Boland does however remain the next in line given he is the only spare paceman in the squad after Lance Morris was released to play in the BBL.
Starc said on Sunday that he believed he, Cummins and Hazlewood could get through all seven of Australia’s Tests from mid-December to mid-March (three at home to Pakistan, two at home to the West Indies and two away in New Zealand).
But Cummins was more bullish on Boland’s chances of getting a look-in at some stage in the next few months.
“We’re huge fans of Scotty, it’s very rare you’re going to get through seven Test matches with the same quick bowling line-up. There’s always niggles or things that pop up, so he’s ready to go if anything happens,” Cummins said.
“I’m sure he’ll play a part at some point, but the message is always we absolutely love what you bring, unfortunately you miss out on this one, but don’t change, keep working hard and make sure you stay ready.”
Rain forced the Aussies indoors on Monday, and with more bad weather forecast on Tuesday there could be a reduction in play.
Cummins said he liked what he’d seen from the pitch as the Aussies look to clinch the Benaud-Qadir Trophy with one Test to play.
“It looks really good, fair bit of grass, probably a fair bit harder and not as green as last year, knowing it was potentially going to be under covers today and for a little bit tomorrow maybe, so we’ll see how it plays but it looks like a really good wicket,” Cummins said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Shan Masood said that ideally he would have liked to play two wicketkeepers in the same XI but that team balance made it an impossibility.
The tourists on Monday named a 12-man squad for the Boxing Day Test, with former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed dropped to make way for fellow gloveman Mohammad Rizwan.
Off-spinner Sajid Khan is in the mix to return as are pacemen Hasan Ali and Mir Hamza, with Shan indicating that the final composition of the XI would be determined following a further inspection of the MCG wicket.
The decision to pick Sarfaraz ahead of Rizwan for the first Test in Perth was contentious and did not pay off, with Sarfaraz making scores of three and four as Pakistan crumbled to a 360-run loss inside four days.
Shan explained that Rizwan had needed more time to get used to the rhythms of red-ball cricket but was now ready to go.
“Rizwan just came from the World Cup, a lot of white ball cricket. So we felt that he needed some more time. And he also had a gap in Test cricket when Sarfara took over from him during the New Zealand series (12 months ago), Sarfaraz had an outstanding performance there and Rizwan really hadn’t played a lot of Test cricket or red-ball cricket,” Shan said.
“I think there’s a lot of thinking behind it. Firstly, I’d like to go back to why we played Sarfaraz. I think we wanted to set a precedent where we wanted to reward people that have been playing red-ball consistently in domestic cricket over the last few years
“There’s no competition between the two. They’re equally important to the team. Whatever competition we feel there is this healthy competition.”
Shan said that he would like to field a side with both men.
“If I had it my way or if we had it our way we’d ideally like both to play but that’s not possible. But now we think that Rizwan is ready and we can give Sarfaraz that little bit of a break to sort of regroup, come back, and again, more of a tactical decision in terms of the conditions and what we can get best out of each player in those conditions,” Shan said.
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Originally published as Cricket news: Pat Cummins backs Scott Boland to make Australia return, Sarfaraz Ahmed dropped for Pakistan | Boxing Day Test
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