Scott Boland has flagged Joe Root as the England batter to “take down” this Ashes series as Pat Cummins stepped up his return from a back injury with an encouraging net session at Perth Stadium.
While England were handed a day off on Monday after their warm-up fixture at Lilac Hill, Australia’s players began their preparations after flying in 24 hours earlier. A green-tinged pitch was being watered out in the middle as temperatures hit 33C inside the ground.
Boland, scourge of England on their previous tour here four years ago, was already the seamer chosen to replace Cummins in the Australian XI, with a further hamstring injury to Josh Hazlewood likely to see South Australia’s Brendan Doggett handed a debut this week.
Asked about the tourist he was targeting, the soft-spoken Boland, 36, plumped for the obvious answer. “Hopefully we can keep Joe Root and the guys in the middle-order pretty quiet,” he replied.
“You always want to take down the best players. In the past when Joe Root has been captain you want to try to make sure he has as little impact as you can.”
Boland burst through in 2021-22, taking 18 wickets at just nine runs apiece – including a remarkable six for seven on debut at the MCG – in a 4-0 hammering. The 2023 series in England was a different story, however, Boland taking two wickets at 115 across two outings as a far more aggressive England side took him on.
“I learned a lot,” Boland said. “I’ve reflected on that tour a fair bit. There will be tweaks to my gameplan for what I want to do, but I don’t think I need to change too much. I just need to execute a bit better.”
Cummins was later seen charging in at Australia’s net session for almost an hour, approaching full speed, after a “hotspot” in his lower back – the early signs of a stress fracture – was detected shortly after the tour of West Indies in July.
A return in the day-night second Test in Brisbane that starts on 4 December is the 32-year-old’s current target, with Steve Smith stepping up as captain for the opener in Perth this week.
