The 36-year-old Scott Boland has revealed his hunger to secure a spot in the upcoming World Test Championship finals (WTC) next week at Lord’s.
He says that he is now pain-free for the first time in 18 months and is aiming to cause Australia’s selectors headaches for the spot in the playing 11.
He was not part of the Australian squad for the two tests against Sri Lanka. He has not played any cricket since Victoria’s second last Sheffield Shield fixture of Australia’s domestic season in early March after battling with his knee soreness.
However, he has been named in Australia’s squad for the WTC finals, which is set to be played against South Africa starting on June 11 at Lord’s.
Scot Boland has made a huge impact in Border Border-Gavaskar Series, picking 21 wickets at an average of 13 in the three tests in place of the injured Josh Hazlewood.
He was also Australia’s best quick in the 2023 WTC finals when he was selected ahead of Hazlewood. But he knows he is no guarantee to play Lord’s against South Africa as Hazlewood is fully fit again having bowled throught out the IPL 2025 season picking 22 wickets at an average of 18 helping RCB to win their maiden title.
“I’m really happy with how my body’s feeling at the moment,” Boland said. “Pain free for probably the first time in about 18 months. So it’s feeling really good.
“My goal for probably the last two months was just get myself and my body in the position where I can put my hand up and be ready to go if it goes my way. I probably felt like at the back end of the Shield season, my knee was sort of, not wearing away, but wasn’t going how I wanted to go,” he added.
“And I didn’t feel like I was bowling how I wanted. But now I feel like I’m in a really good spot that I can bowl how I want to bowl. It’s pulling up really well, so that’s all I can do, and I just want to make their decision as hard as possible,” added Scott Boland.
Australia’s Test Squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.
