Australian captain Pat Cummins felt bad for Scott Boland, who missed out on his place in the playing XI for the World Test Championship (WTC) final and hasn't done anything wrong to not be a part of it. Josh Hazlewood, who just won the IPL with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) last week, came back straight into the Test side after missing the last two games against India, followed by the Sri Lanka tour due to injury.
Cummins mentioned that it wasn't the last Test match Boland would have played and that there is a lot of Test cricket coming up, so he shouldn't lose hope, just because he is on the wrong side of the 30s. "There are some guys where you genuinely say you've done nothing wrong, don't change a thing, and that's Scotty and he's just really unfortunate to miss out. Joshy Hazlewood comes back in, we know how good he is," Cummins said in the pre-match press conference ahead of the final against South Africa at Lord's.
"The message to Scotty is there's a lot of Test cricket coming up in the next couple of years, and just because you're in your 30s doesn't mean you're missing this Test and that's one Test off your career.
"I think by having a squad of fast bowlers, hopefully we can extend a lot of careers for an extra couple of years. So it's really unfortunate that Scotty misses this but yeah, message to him is don't feel you're running out of time, we've still got lots of time, hopefully in his career," Cummins added.
Boland was second behind India's Jasprit Bumrah on bowlers' list for best bowling average, taking 21 wickets in three matches he played in the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy, as he was single-handedly responsible for the visitors' downfall in Melbourne and Sydney, despite the series being 1-1 after the first three games.
The rest of the line-up was on the expected lines, except Marnus Labuschagne being pushed up to opening for the first time in Test cricket.
Australia's playing XI for WTC Final: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood