MELBOURNE: Australian Test captain Pat Cummins has said the induction of Victorian fast bowler Scott Boland into the team for the third Ashes Test was a huge moment.
Boland will be only the second player with Indigenous Australian heritage to play for the men’s Test team, after Jason Gillespie.
Faith Thomas and Ashleigh Gardner have played women’s Tests for Australia, while Daniel Christian, D’Arcy Short and Hannah Darlington have played limited-overs formats. That’s the entire rollcall from 144 years of national teams.
“It’s huge,” said Cummins. “Dizzy (Gillespie) was the first. That’s huge. In Australia we have a rich history of 50,000 or 60,000 years, and it’s great that’s started to be reflected in our team.
“He’s really excited obviously, he’s dreamed to wear the baggy green, but also a packed MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), Boxing Day, it doesn’t get any better.”
Cummins will himself return after sitting out of the Adelaide Test thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, meaning that Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson will drop back to the bench. Both are being monitored by Australia’s fitness staff given the quick turnaround between all five Ashes matches.
That must have been an especially tough decision to take for Richardson, who took 5-42 in the final innings to win the match for Australia.
“Jhye is pretty sore,” said Cummins. “He’s got a small leg injury which is nothing major, but we thought rather than risking him we’d give him a week off.”
Boland, though, was already being considered before the series as an MCG specialist, given his endurance on flatter pitches of the like that Australia’s two biggest cities can serve up.