Scott Boland or Josh Hazelwood?

[shanegrambeau]

What's your vote?

Essential for the future of St Kilda...
..I would say.

[Banger9798]

Big Scotty B for me.
Would be unplayable on English wickets

[D.B.Cooper]

My nephew has played with Scott at Frankston Peninsula Heat.

He says Scott is one of the all time great guys and still remarkably humble despite his success.


Comes down to the club with all his spare sponsor donated kits, including uniforms etc and gives them to the young Premier players in the lower grades.

Got to love the big fella.

[saynta]

Scotty for mine.

[Jacks Back]

I know Josh is the senior player who would normally come back into the side after injury however, to me, he is a pace bowler which Starc and Cummings are anyway. Scott has a point of difference in that, as Banger said before, he "Would be unplayable on English wickets".

Seeing as Josh may not be 100% after his injury, I would go with Scotty for the point of difference.

[The_Dud]

Hazlewood has 200 wickets at 26, he'd be the number 1 quick for most Test nations.

Pity all 4 can't be played. I've never been a fan of rotating bowlers, but this might actually be the ideal case for it. Maybe Starc can have a rest Boxing Day.

[Ghost Like]

If Hazelwood is fit, play both & rest Starc. Boland has more than earned another Boxing Day Test.

[Impatient Sainter]

Boland for mine has earnt his place in the side. Hazelwood can carry the drinks next week.

[Saintmike65]

How can you drop Boland after taking 4 for 42 in the last test and man of the match in last year’s Boxing Day test!!

[spert]

Depends who is from NSW, as they will get the nod.

[B.M]

Boland

[remboy]

Boland’s test record to date and his record at the G make it almost impossible to leave him out. Given that they have back to back tests I think the best thing to do would be to play Boland on his home deck, give Hazelwood another week to get himself right and then play him on his home deck.

[The_Dud]

Let's be honest though, South Africa has the worst batting lineup I've ever seen come to Australia, so all the bowlers are feasting.

And not to dampen the Boland Hype, he has had a very easy run at it so far!

Also Neser has done nothing wrong either.

We're in an enviable position with our bowling attack, rest those with the slightest of niggles and keep everyone fresh.

[Rubyjo]

Drop Green and play both.

[The_Dud]

Drop Green and play both.

5 bowlers doesn’t work, not enough overs to go round.

[shanegrambeau]

From The Guardian

.....starts here....

The irresistible case to pick Scott Boland over Josh Hazlewood for MCG Test

The everyman quick’s form stacks up but his selection for a home Test in Melbourne against South Africa is also about the vibe he brings
Scott Boland appears to have the same mysterious energy behind him that he had last season.
Scott Boland appears to have the same mysterious energy behind him that he had last season. Photograph: Dave Hunt/EPA
Geoff Lemon
Tue 20 Dec 2022 14.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 21 Dec 2022 00.41 GMT

42

For the last five years, Australia’s bowling attack has been a given. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, set and forget. There have been change-ups to cover injury or when a second spinner has been needed in Asia, but there has been no question about the best four options in the country when the time has come to revert. With this stability, the quartet has played 22 Test matches together, a record shared with the West Indies’ 1950s and 60s combination of Garfield Sobers, Lance Gibbs, Charlie Griffith and Wes Hall.
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The fact that 22 is the record gives a sense of how hard it is to keep a full bowling attack fit and firing over time. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath played 47 times with Jason Gillespie and 38 times with Brett Lee, but only 16 times with both. James Anderson and Stuart Broad played 47 times with Graeme Swann without a regular fourth partner. Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock played 30 matches or more with Allan Donald and later Makhaya Ntini, but these always involved a range of all-rounders and no regular fourth specialist. Sobers was an all-rounder in that West Indies team, but bowled as one of only four frontline options, offering pace and spin.

After all this time, though, Hazlewood is likely to be fit for the Boxing Day Test after missing a couple of matches, and is not quite an automatic selection to come back in. The rise of Scott Boland has been that precipitous. The Victorian quick made it into the Ashes squad a year ago with selectors wanting options to manage five Tests in quick succession. He was specifically there with an eye to Melbourne and Sydney pitches with a recent history of flatness, given his long first-class career of bashing away to find a flicker in lifeless tracks.

An earlier Hazlewood injury notionally gave Boland his chance, although he was still effectively a specialist Melbourne pick: Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson had filled in for the previous Test, and while selectors cited minor injury concerns for both, surely they would have picked one if they were not so keen on using Boland. As it turned out, the Melbourne pitch was not flat, and the rest is history: six wickets for seven runs in 20 balls to wrap up the English and the urn.
Scott Boland salutes the MCG crowd
Scott Boland salutes the MCG crowd after bowling Australia to victory in the Third Test against England last year. Photograph: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Boland kept his spot in Sydney and Hobart, finishing the series with the 1880s numbers of 18 wickets at 9.55 runs apiece. Afterwards he resumed his spot down the pecking order, joining the squad touring Pakistan and Sri Lanka as very much the fourth quick in matches that mostly only used two. At 33 years old, he could have drifted out of contention and finished his brief Test foray as a curiosity, someone who enjoyed one brilliant moment in the sun.

Instead, he’s back, slotting in thanks to more injuries after the first West Indies Test in Perth. He has picked up right where he left off. When Boland was on song in the Ashes there was this sense of irresistibility, a momentum that washed England away. A big part of this was that twice he took multiple wickets in an over. This year against the West Indies he did it again, three in six balls with a pink Kookaburra in an evening session. Then against South Africa in Brisbane, twice more, knocking over Sarel Erwee and Khaya Zondo in one over in the first innings, then Kyle Verreyne and Marco Jansen in the second.

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His career of five matches has reached 25 wickets at 10.36. That’s a long way from Hazlewood’s tally of 217 from 58 Tests, but there has to be the argument that Boland right now has the same mysterious energy behind him that he had last season. There has to be the argument that swapping him for a bowler who is returning from injury and lacking match sharpness is a bigger gamble when it comes to improving the team. And there has to be the argument that if Boland was the specialist pick for the Melbourne Cricket Ground last year, as the country’s preeminent authority on how to use it, then his deeds that followed must have made that position as solid and enduring as the statue of him that Mark Howard on commentary begged to have built.

All cricket logic aside, there is also the matter of the vibe. We keep being reminded that cricket is an entertainment business. Nothing gets a bigger response from Australian crowds right now than when Boland gets thrown the ball. The Queenslanders cheered for Marnus Labuschagne, the Western Australians for Cameron Green, but everybody has hit another notch of volume when that solid block of fast bowler ambles off the rope at fine leg.

Boland has the everyman aspect. He is a toiler and a tryer. He was too unfit to prosper and then dropped the weight to make it as a professional. He won and lost an Australian one-day spot years before creating this Test rebirth. His avalanches of international wickets could not be more at odds with his domestic career, where he has banged a length for over a decade to dislodge one batter for every 56 balls. And now that success has come, with his place as a new crowd hero, he has greeted it all with smiling shyness and an air of puzzlement, immovably humble about just running in and doing his bit for a team.

Nothing demonstrated that more than the sight of Boland at the Gabba last weekend, a man of modest batting talent, walking out in the gloomy evening on that green and dicey pitch to face 150kph from Anrich Nortje, all to protect the No 6 Green as nightwatchman. The next morning Green scored an innings of 18 that helped Travis Head push towards an ultimately match-winning lead of 66. Chalk some of that up to Boland. Brisbane appreciated him for it. It would be a very avoidable shame if his own Melbourne crowd did not get to cheer him to the middle once again.
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[saynta]

Depends who is from NSW, as they will get the nod.

Yep. Vic players get shafted all the time. Been going on for yonks.

[happy feet]

Scotty for me, and I am from NSW.

And I agree with a previous poster he would be a nightmare on the pommy wickers.

[happy feet]

Scotty for me, and I am from NSW.

And I agree with a previous poster he would be a nightmare on the pommy wickers.

[Yorkeys]

Play them both.

Drop Warner.

[shanegrambeau]

Do you think they’ll consider their batting worth as tailenders? Both better than Courtney Walsh!

[Killa]

A couple of points

South Africa played 4 fast bowlers and a spinner, batting their ‘keeper at 6

And, as with England last summer, the South African batting lineup is weak, so plenty of wickets to be feasted on

Boland (and Neser) got their opportunities due to injury, noting the first cab off the rank in Adelaide last summer was Richardson from WA, who promptly won that Test with 5 in the second innings, Richardson then injured giving opportunity to Boland

So you could argue that Boland is 5/6 in the pecking order

Both Starc and Cummins are bowling consistently well - noting the South African batting line up boasts no one averaging 40 or more at the level (and most under 30)

My view on selection is that you always go with your best given no injury or injury concern

South Africa have a potent pace attack - but I would put that, at full strength and with Green bowling to his potential, we have the better attack

And we have 6 batsmen all averaging above mid 40’s at the level - and 2 of them around 60

Plus Carey averages 35, Starc over 20 and forget about Cummins and Lyon with bat in hand

Win in Melbourne and Test Championship here we come

So this is about winning - and putting your best eleven on the field

The batsmen will know who is troubling them most in the Nets - with the Selectors watching

And that is where the decision will be made

So bend your back and fight it out boys

The other consideration is the pitch - noting the Poms were dispatched within 3 days last summer in Melbourne

Will the result in Brisbane see a more batsman friendly deck offered on Monday?

It is CA, who are fore lock tuggers including to visiting Nations

[Killa]

And the West Indies in the 50’s had Valentine and Ramadin as a lethal spin bowling combination, Gibbs replacing Ramadin during the 60/61 Tour of Australia and after the First Test

[Munga]

Talking about cricket on the main board?? The Fireman will lose their sh*t!

[shanegrambeau]

Talking about cricket on the main board?? The Fireman will lose their sh*t!

Yeah, but it has some common threads that relate to footy fandom and selection. And it’s off season..so..

1) An established player who is not flamboyant but is very tidy and professional. Think tennis Ivan Lendyl. (Sp?) vs a maverick and crowd favorite, Joffa Cunningham.

2) But wait…is Boland just a maverick ‘character’ . No, he’s really good and has serious chops.

3) Home ground

4) Hazelwood has kept going along…he escaped all sand paper stories (not his fault you would guess) and keeps going on. And he’s kept strong and has pace …not as much as the others, but still sharp, with bounce, incredible metronomic consistency like McGrath.

5) You sense that Boland is a flower who needs to bloom, and could wilt perhaps…Bob Massie? Who knows..?

6) the mob like Boland the Human more than Hazelwood the Robot.

7) But in the final analysis - who is better?

Like comparing two very similar goods when the task is considered..
Dunstall vs Lockett, Bont vs Pendles, Ambrose vs Walsh, Broad vs Anderson, Marshall vs Grambeau

Tough call!