Australian legend Ricky Ponting believes Josh Hazlewood would be preferred over Scott Boland if he is a hundred percent fit for the Ashes 2023 series against England.
Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the ICC World Test Championship final against India due to injury.
Right-arm fast-medium bowler Boland replaced Hazlewood in the Australian Playing XI for the WTC final.
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“Nothing changes for me if Hazlewood is fit and they are 100% convinced that he can get through the game, then I think he’ll start, but if he doesn’t you have a pretty good back-up,” Ponting said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
However, Ponting also said that Boland has performed exceptionally well in the WTC final and he could be in consideration for the first Test playing XI.
“Scotty is very impressive, the thing the selectors might be thinking about is Josh’s injury record over the last few years. When you look at it, with Scotty bowling the way he is, it’s a pretty compelling argument to say is he in their starting XI for the first Test,” he added.
In the WTC final, Boland picked two crucial wickets while conceding only 59 runs. He cleared up Shubman Gill on the second day and KS Bharat on the third day.
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