The harsh truth Scott Boland fanatics must accept

Cue the usual uproar from Scott Boland fans when he gets dropped for the third and deciding Test in South Africa.

The softly spoken Victorian fast bowler has amassed a sizeable following since his unbelievably successful debut for Australia at his home Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day 2021.

He skittled the English and took 6-7 in the second innings to instantly etch his name into cricket folklore.

There were calls to build the man a statue outside the MCG, alongside the likes of Shane Warne, Sir Don Bradman, and Ron Barrassi.

If doubters thought it was a flash in the pan and Boland’s figures would eventually go the same way Marnus Labuschagne’s have in recent times, they were dead wrong.

He’s now played 20 Test matches and boasts 87 wickets at 18.44, and a strike rate of one wicket every 38.6 deliveries on average.

Those figures are better than anyone who has played men’s Test cricket since 1896 - 130 years ago.

Last week he became the oldest paceman to play for Australia in more than 60 years. He took innings figures of 5-81 after replacing off-spinner Nathan Lyon in the team in Gqeberha.

On top of that, he faced 166 deliveries and made 40 in the second innings when the Aussies were desperately trying to cling on for a draw. He performed better with the bat than some others in the team whose job it actually is to score runs.

The fact the 37-year-old will now be running drinks yet again in the third Test, at Cape Town, starting on Tuesday night (AEDT) will no doubt rankle his loyal supporters, who continually question why Boland isn’t a permanent fixture in the country’s historically most revered team.

But the fact is, whether fans like it or not, he is stuck behind four bowlers who will go down as some of the best ever.

Pat Cummins is the least in-form Aussie bowler at the moment, but he’s the captain of the team, and so won’t be getting dropped any time soon.

Josh Hazlewood hits the deck and finds the outside edge of opponents’ bats better than just about anyone on the planet, and Mitchell Starc offers the point of difference given he is a left-arm swing bowler who has a habit of taking early-innings wickets.

And Lyon is Australia’s greatest ever off-spinner, whose 573 wickets sit only behind Warne’s 708 on the list of the country’s all-time Test tally.

Individually they are four of the greatest red-ball bowlers ever. Collectively they boast 1661 Test wickets and have been the nucleus of the Australian team for more than a decade.

Long story short, Boland is Australia’s best of the rest, and he will continue to get the odd call-up when conditions don’t suit Lyon, or when the likes of Hazlewood and Starc are injured or simply need a rest.

It’s the harsh reality his vocal fans must accept.

He is the modern-day Stuart MacGill – the luckless leggie who managed to play 44 Test matches despite being stuck behind Warne for almost his entire career.

Given his age, it’s fair to assume Boland may only have a year or two of professional cricket left in him. He admitted himself last week “time is probably running out”.

That being said, his body has held up well compared to other fast bowlers, and his action isn’t as taxing on the joints as some are. There is reason to believe he could do a Jimmy Anderson and play beyond his 40th birthday.

He is already the second-oldest member of the Test squad, with only soon-to-be 39-year-old Lyon his senior. The careers of fellow fast bowlers Hazlewood (35) and Starc (36) are winding down and there are rumours of mass retirements shortly after next year’s Ashes tour of England.

He will no doubt see more game time in England, where wickets generally suit pitched-up seam bowlers like him.

With no obvious young quicks waiting in the wings of the Test team, Boland will add a few more caps to his ledger before calling it a day.

The question now is what his incredible average will be by the time he retires.