Border-Gavaskar Trophy: ‘Can’t be conservative in India. Boland to play if two seamers, Morris if three,’ says Ian Healy

The absence of Josh Hazlewood and Cameroon Green for first Test has upset Australia’s team balance. Will they play two spinners or three seamers?

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Aussie pacers Lance Morris and Scott Boland. (AP/FILE)

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The former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy reckons it has to be Scott Boland if Australia go with just two seamers and that the fastest bowler in the pack Lance Morris can feature if they go with three seamers.

That assessment also raises the question about Australia’s bowling composition. Will they go with two spinners and two seamers? The injury to their allrounder Cameroon Green, who however is still hopeful of making a surprise recovery, has put the team’s combinations in disarray. If Green was available with his fast-medium, then Australia could easily go with two spinners. Green is still likely to miss and it has left a hole in the attack.

“First Test, we’ve just got Cummins,” Healy said on SENQ Breakfast radio. “We might play two spinners or may not, which would mean we’d need Boland and Morris.

Australia’s captain Pat Cummins poses for selfies with journalists after a press conference ahead of their four match test cricket series against India, in Bengaluru, India, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

“If we play two quicks, I’d play Boland, if it’s three quicks then Morris gets in.

“I don’t think we win in India by being conservative, but I think just Cummins and Morris in together only is maybe not enough. We’ve only won one Test (in India) since 2004,” Healy said.

The other day Hazlewood seemed to hint at Boland as likely replacement for him as he brought up the fact that Boland is used to bowling on flat tracks at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“Scotty has bowled plenty at the MCG when it was a flat wicket, it probably wasn’t swinging or reverse swinging so he knows how to work hard for a long period of time,” Hazlewood said of Boland with a Test bowling average of 12.21.

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If the pitch is abrasive at Nagpur, then there might be some reverse swing as the Test progresses.

“You’ve got Lance Morris who has worked hard on reverse swing for the last month and then a nice lead-in here with a few sessions,” Hazlewood said. “The guys are excited first of all to play in the subcontinent, they both haven’t yet, but they’re very well qualified to do so.”

Boland was the fourth aboriginal man to don the baggy green for Australia.

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