Boxing Day Test: Scott Boland looking to once again be a ‘bloody nightmare’ in MCG Test

One of the men who picked Scott Boland for his life-changing Boxing Day Test debut has opened up on why he knew the hometown hero was the right man for the job. And former Australian coach Justin Langer believes the Victorian could do it again on Thursday. Boland was injected into the 2021-2022 Ashes series and rattled through a star-studded England batting line-up at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, taking 6-7 in one of the greatest debuts Australian cricket has ever seen. In two sessions, he went from long-time domestic battler to cult figure, with Bay 13 and the rest of MCG eating from the palm of his hand. And three years on Boland is poised to return to his favourite ground for this week’s crunch fourth Test against India. The 35-year-old is the obvious replacement for Josh Hazlewood, who is likely to miss the rest of the series with a calf injury. He deputised for the big quick earlier this month in Adelaide and took five wickets for the match, including Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli. Langer believes Boland’s dedication to his length — one that leaves the best batters in the world glued to the crease — is what makes him so successful at the venue. The MCG has just recovered from a drab period of cricket where batters shared an annual post-Christmas feast on an easy wicket and results had become hard to come by. That’s the track Boland slaved away on week-in, week-out for Victoria. “The thing about Scott, he has bowled a lot at the MCG and traditionally it has been a really, really flat wicket and therefore, to have success at the old MCG, your length has to be literally perfect,” Langer, who will be a part of Channel 7’s commentary team on Boxing Day, told The West Australian. “If you’re not, you’re just not going to get any traction in the game.” That’s exactly how he had Haseeb Hameed caught-behind, failed nightwatchman Jack Leach leaving a ball that crashed into his own undefended stumps, Jonny Bairstow lbw and Joe Root and Ollie Robinson caught in the slips in that famous spell. His suave and nonchalant celebration after catching Mark Wood off his own bowling to take a maiden five-wicket haul defied the mayhem happening beyond the rope. He had whipped Australia into a frenzy. “He’s such a shy guy, he doesn’t like all the attention,” Australian great Mike Hussey noted after his fifth wicket. Langer explains exactly why the bustling quick is a “bloody nightmare” to face. “The reason for that is he is so meticulous with his length. We all grow up saying ‘if it’s full you go forward if it’s short you go back’ whereas there is that length where you’re not sure whether to go forward or come back and I’m sure that’s the adjustment it takes from opposition batters,” Boland’s first Test coach said. “He rarely misses that length and it is just the perfect length, because as a batter it’s ‘should I play forward to him, should I push back to him’ and a lot of them get stuck.” Under the hands of former WACA Ground head curator Matt Page, Melbourne’s home of cricket has become a sporting wicket in recent seasons. South Africa found the going tough on that deck two seasons ago and last year’s Test against Pakistan was a good contest between bat and ball. Page declared on Monday this deck would be a “rinse and repeat job” and tipped it would have both pace attacks licking their lips. Boland took three wickets for the match, including key scalps of soon-to-be teammate Sam Konstas, Steve Smith and Nic Maddinson when Victoria beat New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match at the ground earlier this year. “In a nutshell, he has been brought up in really tough conditions and he has evolved his game. When he gets on a wicket with any sort of assistance he is just a bloody nightmare,” Langer said. “It suits the bowlers, like Scotty Boland, who can literally just keep smashing that same length all the time and it just nips a bit off the seam. “Because he presents such an upright seam all the time, he gives himself the chance to get some movement away. “He’s a bit like Mitchell Starc, he often takes a wicket with the first couple of balls, or the first over when he comes onto bowl.” The first day at the MCG is already a sell-out, meaning the crowd could edge towards 90,000. They’re the sort of numbers only seen sporadically at the venue for its iconic opening day and even more rarely for non-Ashes matches. But this series has generated huge public interest, with simmering tensions between Australian and Indian media now adding to the drama. Now Boland’s appearance could boost the crowd again. “There’s 100,000, already sold-out — and that’s before they knew Scott Boland — was playing, so I don’t know where 10,000 of his family are going to sit,” former Australian wicket-keeper Brad Haddin joked on the Willow Talk podcast. “When Boland went off in his spell against England, bay 13 was amazing. Then when you were walking home, no one had left, they were all outside the ground waiting for Scott Boland. “It was an amazing atmosphere and Victorians love one of their own playing for them. It adds to the atmosphere.”