Enforced break has Boland primed for India

Having patiently watched Australia's pace triumvirate swan unharmed through seven consecutive Tests, Scott Boland's eagerness for his maiden county stint earlier this year could not be dented even by the sight of a pancake-flat Edgbaston pitch.

So it is only with hindsight that Boland can see how the abrupt end to his ill-fated stint with Durham, intended to run for four months but which did not even last a full day, might actually have long-term benefits.

The Victorian had arrived at the County Championship Division One club more than a week before his first match, allowing him ample time to acclimatise to bowling in northern England's frosty early-season climate, while he also briefly crossed paths with England's Test captain Ben Stokes in Durham's gym.

Boland's pain-free bowling efforts were enough to suggest he had overcome the knee and heel pain that developed during Victoria's final Sheffield Shield match of the season. It was an injury born out of a new gym routine Boland took on months earlier to boost his explosiveness ahead of his handful of games in the KFC BBL.

But when, at tea on the first day of Durham's match at the same Birmingham venue where the right-armer helped Australia pull off a famous Ashes victory the previous year, he stood up and could hardly walk, Boland suddenly had bigger concerns than a scoreboard that already had Warwickshire on 1-346.

"I got back up, hobbled out onto the ground, and I knew I was in trouble," the 35-year-old told cricket.com.au.

A post-match x-ray revealed a tear in his right foot's plantar fascia that would require at least 10 weeks of rehabilitation, putting paid to a UK venture that was also set to see him play T20 cricket.

Boland returned home to Melbourne without achieving either of his main goals for his spell at Durham; develop his skills with the British Dukes ball (a Kookaburra was used for the Edgbaston match as part of a County Championship trial) and get back up to speed with short-form bowling having played T20s only sparingly in recent years.

Missing the chance to play alongside Stokes, the man who masterminded the biggest test of Boland's career during last year's Ashes, was a further blow.

Now, two months into an unexpected full pre-season with the Vics, Boland has come around to the view that an enforced break might in fact prime him for Australia's highest-stakes home series since the one he made his unforgettable Test debut in nearly three years ago.

"It feels a bit like a blessing in disguise," Boland said of the injury he will continue to rehabilitate over the coming days in Darwin, where he is the Melbourne Stars bowling coach at the Top End T20 series.

"I still would have loved to have played and experienced a county season. I haven't played (much) T20 cricket for three years, so I was really keen to play in the (UK's T20) Blast.

"But I think coming home, having a big pre-season which I haven't had for three or four years as well, having four months in the gym and building up my bowling slowly, I think it's going to benefit me going into the Tests.

"I would have come home from England pretty tired – I would have bowled a fair bit and been sore. I think it's going to be a good thing in the long run."

As far as setting the bar high goes, Boland's build-the-man-a-statue MCG moment has left him needing an Olympic pole vault to scale the kind of heights he reached in the 6-7 haul that clinched the Ashes urn for Australia and saw the proud Gulidjan man pocket the Johnny Mullagh Medal.

Yet his subsequent Test prospects have been hindered more by his friends than his foes.

Such has been the ruthless and unbroken march of captain Pat Cummins and his pace sidekicks Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc that Boland has only played a third of Australia's 30 Tests since his fairytale debut.

That's despite Boland's bowling average of 20.34 being the lowest of any Australian bowler to have played at least 10 Tests since World War Two.

Australia's main pace trio's efficiency was as notable as their proficiency last summer; all five of the Tests Cummins' men played across their home season, plus the ensuing two Tests on their tour of New Zealand, finished inside four days, for a return of six wins and a solitary defeat.

By the end of it, Boland had essentially prepared to take the field in seven Tests, but played none.

He had begun the season by sending down 158 overs for Victoria in less than two months from the beginning of the domestic season to the Test summer opener against Pakistan.

Over the ensuing two-and-a-half months, he then bowled just 10.2 overs in actual games. 

Given he finished the domestic campaign with another big spike, adding a further 107.2 overs in 40 days through February and March, it was little wonder Boland broke down.

"I was expecting to play at some stage," Boland said. "The coaches and selectors were saying, 'You'll probably get a go at some stage, so be ready'.

"It's hard, especially when my mindset is 'It's seven Tests, I'll get a crack at some stage'. But (the big three) are just so resilient and they kept bowling teams out quickly, that they just don't need that much of a break.

"So I was stuck between being fresh for the game where I didn't want to over-bowl in the nets, and I reckon I just didn't get my bowling right. I probably under-bowled a bit.

"I came back here (to Victoria) and every time I'd bowl 40-50 overs (per Shield game) and it was just too big a spike. Then my knee got sore from those jumps, and my foot was a bit sore.

"It's my fault, I just didn't bowl enough. Going forward this season, I want to play more games. Even the last couple of seasons (before last) I always wanted to keep bowling.

"I'm keen to play as many games before the Australian summer to make sure my body's in a really good spot."

That goes for not only the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India this summer, but also beyond.

Boland sees no reason why he cannot be around the mark to face England for their Ashes tour down under the following season, by which time he will be nearing his 37th birthday, taking inspiration from the longevity of recently-retired pace pair Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson.

He has made a concerted effort to improve his recovery in recent years. Post-play pool sessions, either at his home in Melbourne's south-east or when he's travelling, have become part of his routine, while he has also invested in cold compression therapy equipment. He has even looked into the logistics of installing a sauna at his house.

"I'm using this preseason to try to keep myself fit and strong for the next two or three years – however long I can keep going," Boland said, adding that he is keen to explore a career as a bowling coach when he does finish playing.

"I want to keep going for as long as I can.

"Broad and Anderson proved that if you keep putting up good numbers, it doesn't matter how old you are. I just want to keep doing that. I don't want to put a barrier on when I'm going to finish up."