Australia’s first-choice attack is back together in Darwin, and Boland is the one left out

Australia start their Test season in Darwin on Thursday with the bowling attack they have not been able to put on a field together since the West Indies tour last year. The price of that is Scott Boland, who has been left out.

The call that went against Boland

Pat Cummins confirmed the XI at Marrara Stadium a day before the first Test against Bangladesh. Josh Hazlewood takes the third seam spot alongside Cummins and Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon is the specialist spinner, and Jake Weatherald opens with Travis Head. First ball is at 10am local time, which is 6am IST.

“I think we were pretty certain we wanted Lyno inside, so just kind of working out what the make-up of the quicks were,” Cummins said. “So went with Joshy, [we] obviously know Scotty’s class. It’s always a pretty tight call.”

Boland and Josh Inglis are the two players from the named squad who miss out. Cummins pointed to the volume of cricket ahead as the consolation, which is not much of one for a bowler whose Test record barely allows a selector an argument. Cameron Green bats at five, Alex Carey keeps and bats at six despite saying he would take a promotion, and Beau Webster comes in at seven.

Lyon’s return has been the longer wait. His Ashes ended with a hamstring injury in Adelaide, in a match Cummins rates as the best his off-spinner has bowled in years.

Hazlewood needs five

Hazlewood has 295 Test wickets. Five more and he becomes the ninth Australian to reach 300, and he has two Tests in this series to find them. He has not played a Test since the West Indies tour in July last year, with hamstring and Achilles trouble ruling him out of the whole Ashes, and his last international appearance of any kind came in October.

Darwin has waited 22 years for this

Marrara has staged exactly two Tests. In July 2003 Australia beat Bangladesh by an innings and 132 runs after bowling them out for 97 and 178. A year later Sri Lanka lost there by 149 runs. Nothing since.

Weatherald has the neatest line in the whole build-up. He was born and raised in Darwin, he is the first born-and-bred Territorian to play a Test for Australia, and he made that debut only last November in the Ashes opener in Perth. On Thursday he opens the batting on his home ground.

Bangladesh have a warm-up score to explain

Bangladesh arrived in Darwin 10 or 12 days out, then were bowled out for 54 by a Cricket Australia XI in the tour match. Najmul Hossain Shanto did not treat it as a verdict on anything.

“[Tackling] the bounce is the key but we have been preparing on bouncy wickets at home in the last few months,” the captain said. “They have a world-class bowling attack, but as a team, it is a good opportunity to challenge them.”

He did not name an XI, citing niggles in the camp, but confirmed Litton Das is fit, which matters for a middle order that has been carrying an opening pair short of runs. He also hinted at both frontline spinners, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam, alongside three quicks, on a drop-in surface with grass on it. Nahid Rana, the quickest bowler they have, is missing.

“We want to play till the fifth day, take it session by session,” Shanto said. “There will always be discussion about whether we can take it to the fifth day. As players we want to take it to the fifth day.”

It is their first Test on Australian soil since that 2003 game. Australia lead the head-to-head 5-1 from six meetings, Bangladesh’s win coming at Mirpur in 2017 by 20 runs. The more useful recent evidence is from June, when Bangladesh won an ODI series against Australia 2-1 at home, the first time they have taken any bilateral series off them.

The table behind it

Australia sit top of the World Test Championship on 87.50 per cent, seven wins from eight matches, at roughly the halfway point of the cycle. Bangladesh are fourth, a position Shanto brought up unprompted and clearly enjoys. India are fifth on 48.15 per cent and start their own two Tests in Sri Lanka on Saturday, so the next fortnight will move the table around more than any stretch since the cycle began.

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