- Lee says selectors should sack Boland once Hazlewood is fit
- Test Great believes selectors won't have much choice
- Boland has been excellent during the fifth Test against India.
Australian great Brett Lee is a big fan of Scott Boland but believes selectors should drop the talented Victorian once Josh Hazlewood returns to full fitness.
Boland starred for Australia over the first two days of the decisive fifth Test against India at the SCG, posting the second-best figures of his Test career (4-31) in a brilliant first innings.
In the second, Boland bowled the first two Indian matches before taking the wicket of Virat Kohli for the fifth time in as many Test matches against the former superstar captain.
“This guy (Boland) is a freak,” said fast bowling great Lee, inducted into the Cricket NSW hall of fame on Saturday.
'His action makes him good, his perseverance, his temperament. And it's under the radar. He's literally the nicest guy in the world, doesn't ask for praise and catches people off guard.'
But if not for Josh Hazlewood's side and calf injuries, Boland would almost certainly not have featured in three of the five Border-Gavaskar Trophy Tests this summer.
Brett Lee (pictured) believes the selectors should drop the Victorian once Josh Hazlewood is back to full fitness.
Scott Boland (pictured) was outstanding during the first two days of the decisive fifth Test against India.
The Victorian has played 13 games in the baggy green but has only been selected once when the “big three” pacers Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins were fit.
Boland's heroic efforts on a devilish SCG wicket will inevitably renew discussions about his place in the fast bowling hierarchy.
But Lee, who has taken the fifth-most Test wickets of any Australian fast, felt the 'big three' were still the top fast bowling talents available to the selectors.
“My gut tells me you have to pick those three guys every day of the week,” he said.
“Starc and Cummins are obviously playing now because they are fully fit, but if Hazlewood gets fit again and is ready to play, unfortunately you will have to go for Josh Hazlewood, and when I say unfortunately, unfortunately for Scott Boland.
'In my opinion, a fit Josh Hazlewood fits into any Test line-up. What do you do when three don't fit into four? It's difficult.'
Lee compared Boland's situation to that of the retired Stuart MacGill, who was consistently beaten at the selection table by the legendary Shane Warne during his own career.
MacGill took 208 wickets at 29.02 in his 44 Tests, 11 of which came as Warne served a one-year drug ban. Four more international caps for MacGill followed Warne's retirement in early 2007.
The Victorian has played 13 matches in the baggy green but has only been selected once when 'big three' pacers Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins were fit.
Only 16 times was there room in the XI for both MacGill and his colleague Warne, whose status as the first-choice spinner of his generation yielded 145 Test caps.
“It's a bit like MacGill and Warne, that's probably the best analogy I could say,” said Lee, MacGill's former Test team-mate.
'Stuart MacGill took 200 Test wickets as back-up bowler to Shane Warne. But he wasn't a backup bowler, he was the number one spinner anywhere in the world.
“I think Boland has the same bad luck – being born at the wrong time when Australian fast bowling is so good and so strong.”