Boland draws on 'most complete performance' in Test recall

Even if India's top order chooses not to watch back the footage of Scott Boland's most recent Test against them, there is a good chance the fast bowler himself will.

Boland shapes as the most likely candidate to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood for the day-night Test in Adelaide in what would mark the 35-year-old's first international in 18 months.

It is a similar scenario to the one that saw Boland win a berth for Australia's World Test Championship final against India at The Oval last year when Hazlewood also sat out due to an injury concern.

While Boland's Ashes-clinching haul at the MCG on Test debut will take some topping as the most memorable performance of his career, the Victorian insists the WTC decider in fact marks the best bowling effort of his career.

"Over a whole game, I'd say yes (it was)," he told cricket.com.au recently. "I reckon I started maybe a little bit slow in the first innings, but once I got into the game, especially in the second innings … I think that's my most complete performance.

"I was pretty nervous going into the game. I hadn't played for a little bit. It was the first time bowling with a Dukes ball over in England, so it was finding my feet with … a few things that were new.

"Once I got past my first spell, I think I bowled really well throughout the whole game."

The pronouncement from a bowler known as one of the Australian team's most reserved and humble characters is not an exercise in hubris.

Rather, it forms part of a self-analysis ritual in which Boland looks back on instances when his bowling action 'clicked' if he ever feels he’s not at his best.

"I'm just looking through my alignment at the crease and in my run up," said Boland. "Generally, if I'm a little bit slow in my run up, then I sort of fall away a little bit (in his bowling action).

"But if my run-up speed stays up, my jump goes straight, then I'm generally in a pretty good spot to be consistent with where the ball's landing.

"One of the games I look at is the first spell I bowled in Sydney in my second Test. Then I look at a spell in Hobart – the Test after – when I felt like my action was really good as well. And then the World Test Championship (final).

"They're the three games that, even now, two years on, it's something I look back on – when my action was in a really good spot and I look at that to see if things change.

"Just to reinforce you can do it against the best players in the world."

Boland, who has 35 wickets at 20.34 from his 10 Tests, has battled knee and ankle issues at the beginning of the home summer but had a strong showing with the pink ball in the Prime Minister's XI match against India on the weekend. 

"I don't know who they'll play but Scotty has been around for a while and has played a couple of pink-ball games," Mitchell Starc told cricket.com.au's Unplayable Podcast, on an episode to be released on Thursday morning.

"He loves playing here as well when it's nipping and just doing enough. We saw his skills on show in the PM's XI when it was just doing enough.

"I played that Shield game (against) him a few weeks ago (at the MCG) where he was coming back from a couple of niggles and just coming into his rhythm. But you could see he was on the verge of that rhythm that that you always know is there with Scotty."

"If he does get the chance this week, he'll be the Scotty we know and have seen before."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal