Australia no longer have a Big Three fast bowling attack – Scott Boland is now right up there alongside Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
His match haul of 10-76 was top-notch fast bowling and he’s earned the right to be considered on the same tier as the other three world-class quicks.
Australia would not have won the fifth Test without him. It was a magnificent display in both innings.
I think for the Ashes next year, if all four quicks are available, Cummins plays every Test as captain and they rotate their way through the other fast bowlers so they’re all fresh each time they play.
Starc got three wickets in the first innings in Sydney and he was carrying an injury, but you can see statistically that his bowling average gets high later in the series if he doesn’t have a break.
Hazelwood’s one of the greatest bowlers of all time but there was no decline in output when Boland came in for him.
Boland is so modest. You could hear in his player of the match award speech that he probably said fewer words than the number of wickets he took in this Test.
He’s a machine and Australia basically have the luxury of a Big Four cartel of fast bowlers now. He’s on their level.
Boland bowled brilliantly but I wouldn’t say it was a great pitch because I think it was obviously very much a fast bowling surface.
How many overs of spin did we see? Just 10 for a match in Sydney.
The Test was over quickly and it just looked like it just had too much grass on it and there were inconsistencies there.
Nitish Kumar Reddy is only a medium-pacer but we saw on day two that he was getting steep bounce off a length. I don’t think it was unsafe, just too much uneven bounce.
And you could question some of the shots that led to players getting out but when the match is over midway through day three, it’s obvious the pitch had too much in it for the quicks.
Australia with the Border Gavaskar Trophy. (Photo by Santanu Banik/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
It’s better than the batathons that we’ve seen for a few years at the SCG but they didn’t get the balance right – seven millimetres of grass was too much on the surface so next year against the Poms, the groundstaff need to get that right.
The big question is if Jasprit Bumrah was fit, I think India could have won.
It was tough for batting on day three – he was player of the series, an unbelievable bowler and he could have basically just bowled his stock ball like Boland on the right spot and he would have got a few wickets that way because there was more than enough natural variation out of the pitch.
But the way it’s worked out, the Aussies have won 3-1, which for someone like Pat Cummins who has never experienced having the thrill of winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy throughout his career, it was an amazing achievement.
And they have also qualified for the World Test Championship with two Tests in Sri Lanka to spare in the cycle so it’s great news all round for Cummins and Co.
Even though it ended up being a six-wicket win, it was closer than that – I don’t think the Aussie tailenders would have wanted to bat and have to chase 40 runs there.
Beau Webster joined Travis Head at the crease and rattled off those remaining runs with ease – he looked like he was a 50-Test veteran, not a debutant.
I thought he bowled really well in the first innings without luck. He’s got big buckets for hands. And he scored a half-century plus he got an unbeaten 39 in the second innings to hit the winning runs.
What happens if he is at third slip when Cameron Green comes back and he’s in the gully? They could almost touch hands.
In Sri Lanka, I’d want Beau to be bowling some off-spin, that sort of Tony Gregg bouncy style and then in the West Indies – that could be a real handful.
In the last few years, his game’s evolved and he just looked like he knew his game back to front. He plays within the V. If you drop short, he’s got a cracking pull shot. He played some great cuts in his second dig. A brilliant debut.
I thought it was a big series for Pat Cummins. He had an average first Test but from that stage onwards, he put his hand up, got crucial wickets and batted really well when needed.
Bumrah deserved to be player of the series with 32 wickets, but there’s an argument to say that Travis Head won this trophy.
Beau Webster celebrates hitting the winning runs. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
He won basically two Test matches for Australia with his tons in Adelaide and Brisbane with only rain stopping them getting up at the Gabba.
I was so happy that he was there at the winning runs with 34 not out because I didn’t want him to finish the series with a string of failures.
For Australia, he was probably the most influential player.
I see a point in the future where Cummins gives up the captaincy but keeps playing and Head should be the next captain.
Head is so important to this Australian team. They just need to find the batters around him.
Sam Konstas didn’t convert another blistering start but you’ve got to remember, this kid’s 19 years of age. What he’s done in the two Tests so far, I think he’s advanced himself.
Whether that lapping and ramping is sustainable long term, we’ll find out. I think he’s got a good enough game without resorting to those types of shots too often.
He’s very strong through the offside. He looks in a good position to play the pull shot. He’ll only fill out. So you can see him being quite an intimidating opening batter to opposition bowlers.
And even with the run-in with the Indians late on day one, to a degree he was standing up for his opening buddy in Usman Khawaja.
I’ve never seen Bumrah react like that. So he sparked something in the Indians that not a lot of people have. And when he batted he didn’t look like he was fazed from all the chat from the Indians.
I think it’s a big pass mark to get a 19-year-old in the team.
In the second innings, his quick- fire 20 odd, instead of the Aussies getting bogged down, he and Usman both played with good intent so the Indians don’t get all over them.
So even though he only made 22 off 17 balls, it got the innings off to a flyer in a low chase on a difficult wicket.
Sam Konstas takes a swing at the SCG. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
India need to worry about looking at their own team. I thought Rishabh Pant batted bravely in the first innings when he got hit a lot and then he produced the innings of the game, 61 off 33 deliveries.
Reddy is a player they’ve discovered who is very technically correct ad Yashasvi Jaiswal has shown he will be a star for the next decade or more.
Bumrah is an absolute star, probably the greatest touring fast bowler that I’ve seen. Mohammed Siraj probably showed that he’s a handy back-up bowler. But they need that third seamer – they really missed Mohammed Shami.
Prisadh Krishna was good with his six wickets in Sydney and he might get better with more Test matches.
Washington Sundar’s got a lot of fight about him, but I think he’s going to have to be batting in the top seven because his bowling won’t have an impact unless they’re on turning tracks like India and Sri Lanka.
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