World Test Championship final: Australia’s bowlers shared the wickets, Scott Boland demands selection in first Ashes Test

After Steve Smith posted his 31st Test century and Travis Head brought up his 150 it was over to the Australian bowling attack who worked over India’s top order.

Cameron Green of Australia celebrates the wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara of India during day two of the ICC World Test Championship Final between Australia and India at The Oval.

Would Scott Boland have played this match if Josh Hazlewood wasn’t under done?

Only the selectors know the answer to that question but the Victorian cult hero confirmed his brilliance and his right to a place in the side for the first Ashes Test with an unerring and unnervingly good display of bowling at the Indian top order.

After Steve Smith posted his 31st Test century and Travis Head brought up his 150 it was over to the bowlers who worked over India’s top order.

At stumps India was 5-151 in reply to Australia’s 469.

They would have been in more trouble had Pat Cummins not overstepped the mark in the delivery that trapped Ajinkya Rahane on 17.

Scott Bolland of Australia during day two of the ICC World Test Championship Final.

It was the fourth time the skipper over-stepped and if that was not enough to suggest this was not pre-ordained a social media clip was.

Cummins recently posted a clip of himself training ahead of the series at home in NSW. In the comments David Warner noted that the delivery filmed was a no ball. Indeed it was a big one.

“That hurt,” Smith said. “No balls are costly and you want your bowlers behind the lines as much as possible and ‘Jinks” is still out there, so yeah, no balls are never good,” Smith said later.

After play Steve Smith admitted Rahane’s reprieve hurt. The last recognised batsman was 29no at stumps.

Captain Pat Cummins had given the new ball to Mitchell Starc, but after two overs in which the ball didn’t swing and the more experienced bowler didn’t find his groove it was thrown to Boland.

He of the MCG, he of the 28 wickets at an average of 13 runs, he who has leapfrogged past more senior quicks.

When Boland came into the Boxing Day Test he did what he’d done year after year for Victoria, nagging away at that off stump.

At The Oval he slipped into that nerve wracking line and length setting about his work as if immune to the occasion.

Steve Smith of Australia during day two of the ICC World Test Championship Final between Australia and India at The Oval.

At the other end the sublime Shubman Gill who many believe is one of the best new batsman on the scene stood ready to confirm expectations.

Both players have only seven Tests to their name, both are indisputably talented but one was made a fool of by the other and unfortunately for Gill it was him.

On this occasion the batsman was no match for the Victorian.

Shouldering arms to the fourth delivery the Indian must have felt like a man executed without the comfort of a blindfold. The opener could only watch in horror as a ball pitched on about a fourth or fifth stumps ducked back and laid waste to his stumps and his innings.

India had suffered its first mortality in the previous over with Cummins dismissed his opposite number.

Rohit Sharma has been India’s best batsman in the qualifying period for the final, scoring two centuries and averaging 43 from his 10 Tests but he was trapped in front by an impeccable piece of bowling on just 15.

India were already in trouble at 2-30 and worse when Cheteshwar Pujara displayed judgment as ill as Gill’s, leaving a delivery that darted back in and bowled him to have the side 3-50.

It was a big scalp for all-rounder Cameron Green who would be a chance of playing Test cricket as a bowler alone but is given limited opportunities because of his age and the fact that he has access to the batsman’s lounge.

Essentially he is too valuable to bowl too much.

Pat Cummins celebrates dismissing India's captain Rohit Sharma for 15 runs.

Starc, brought back into the attack after the ropy start, then delivered a brute of a delivery that reared at Virat Kohli who threw up his hands in defence but only managed to bunt the ball off his gloves into the hands of a rising Steve Smith at second slip.

The collective effort reduced India to 4-71 and while India weren’t done yet, neither was this outstanding Australian bowling attack.

Nathan Lyon has taken 83 wickets in the two year qualifying period for this final where the best of the seamers, Cummins, has but 53.

While the quicks make all the noise, he kills them softly, strums their fate with his fingers, as it were.

Bowling to Ravi Jadeja, who by then had accumulated 48 runs at almost a run a ball, he fooled his opposite number with a ball that drifted and turned significantly.

Jadeja looked stunned when pouched by Smith at slip and the Indian selectors will be looking awkwardly at their shoes. They have left Ravi Ashwin out of this game and in that moment their mistake was confirmed.

Lyon will be relishing the thought of bowling in the fourth innings of this Test, especially if the Australians have the luxury of the lead they look like taking.

Australia have not won the World Test Championship or played a game in the 2023 Ashes, but the first two days of the aforementioned match further confirm suspicions of the past few years that this is a special Australian cricket team.