Ashes 2021-22: Scott Boland enters Australia squad ahead of Boxing Day Test

Hosts Australia are having a dream run in the ongoing Ashes as they went on to clinch the second Test on December 20, thereby winning two matches in a row in the series. Moving into the third, Boxing Day Test, they have added Scott Boland to their squad. It is assumed that another pacer has been added to the squad to manage the workload of players like Mitchell Starc who have already played the first two Tests.

Josh Hazlewood got ruled out of the second game due to a side strain while skipper Pat Cummins had to be isolated for coming in contact with a COVID-19 infected person. In this case, Boland, the Marsh Sheffield Shield player of the year in 2018-19, makes for a fine choice. He was also seen in brilliant form this summer for Victoria as he picked 15 wickets in just two games against New South Wales. He also featured in the game against England Lions before uniting with his national team.

“Boland has been training with the team in Adelaide and joins the squad while the medical team assesses the fast-bowling group following the second Test victory,” read a statement by Cricket Australia.

Talking of Ashes so far, England lost the 2nd straight game of the series and both the losses came up by huge margins. While Australia defeated the visitors in the opening game by nine wickets, they grabbed the next one by 275 runs, and English skipper Joe Root opened up on the same.

Joe Root opens up on mistakes made by England players

“When we look at the ball in hand, I don’t think we bowled the right lengths, we needed to bowl fuller. As soon as we did that in the second innings, we made it harder for them. It’s disappointing because we made the same mistakes that we made four years ago. We could have bowled better and should have batted better. We have to be (confident) about turning things around. I’m confident that we have all that we need to win here. Just need to stop repeating the same mistakes. We have to get through that first 20 minutes and then go greedy, need to leave better as well. Need to also manage certain passages of play better. Certainly, capable of it,” said Root after the conclusion of 2nd Ashes game.