Boland welcomes unusual ploy to disrupt India young gun

There was a time when the sight of a wicketkeeper coming up to the stumps for a bowler who considers themselves to be operating at anything above gentle medium-pace was a surefire means to get the quick's blood boiling.

But in a bid to curtail India's leading run-scorer of the current Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal on his first tour to Australia, Scott Boland openly welcomes such an affront.

On several occasions during India's first innings of the recently completed fourth Test at the MCG, and even more often on the final day of that memorable contest, Alex Carey took up his position at the stumps as if Boland was bowling spin rather than above 130kph.

It represents a calculated risk as even the slightest deflection at that pace would make it impossible for any gloveman to react and catch the ball given the tiny margin of error.

But as Boland explained during the Boxing Day Test where he finished with six wickets in Australia's 184-run win that handed them a 2-1 lead heading into the final Test starting at the SCG on Friday, it's worth the gamble to keep Jaiswal anchored to his crease.

"He's been trying to take a couple of steps at me when I'm bowling," Boland said of the fearless 23-year-old India opener who has scored 359 runs at 51.28 from his eight innings of the NRMA Insurance Series to date.

"So I just want to get 'Kez' (Carey) up to make sure I know where he's going to be in the crease.

"I don't think he'll be walking out of the crease with the keeper up to the stumps.

"I don't mind it as a fast bowler just because I know where he's going to be.

"It just keeps him still and that's the main objective of it."

It's a vastly different response to that of Australia's most successful fast bowler Glenn McGrath who jokingly attempted to have a decision reversed when then-keeper Adam Gilchrist completed a stumping off the 'quick' during a one-day international against New Zealand at Wellington in 2005.

McGrath mockingly signalled to the official scorers that the batter should be called back, later clarifying that the prospect of having a stumping against his name would be damaging to reputation as a genuinely fast bowler.

It remained the only stumping executed off his bowling throughout his 14-year Test and limited-overs career.

But Carey can already claim to have ventured into that territory, albeit his successful stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lord's last year from the bowling of Australia pace-bowling allrounder Cameron Green came in vastly (and infamously) different circumstances.

It was also during that Ashes campaign in the UK last year that England's batters began walking down the pitch towards Boland to try and disrupt the right-armer's usually metronomic length.

The tactic worked to an extent with Boland's two wickets for that series coming at a cost of 115.5 apiece – a sharp contrast to his career average of a miserly 19.84 – as he was clearly targeted by England's upper-order 'Bazballers'.

Jaiswal's insistence on advancing towards Boland during the second Test at Adelaide as well as the recent Boxing Day encounter might also be driven by memories of India's previous meeting with Australia, in the World Test Championship final that preceded last year's Ashes.

In that game, played at The Oval, Boland claimed five wickets for the match including the prized scalps of Shubman Gill (in both innings) as well as danger men Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the space of a single over to set Australia on the path to victory.

In that game, Boland was allowed to settle in his usual unrelenting line with batters stuck on the crease trying to defend.

Carey conceded it was something of a risk versus reward exercise, with the pay-off from keeping Jaiswal in his crease coming at the potential cost of an edged catch that could easily escape his grasp.

But ensuring the free-scoring opener remained anchored was not the sole intention.

"It was just breaking up his (Jaiswal's) momentum as well," Carey said today.

"He was able to get down the wicket on a wicket that was not offering too much.

"It (MCG pitch) didn't stay as low as I thought it might have on day five, it still had pretty good carry, so it was more just trying to break up the momentum.

“As batters … we don't always love it when a wicketkeeper comes up to a medium pacer, so I was just trying to break that momentum."

Carey then laughed off suggestions he had knowingly demeaned fast-bowler Boland as a "medium-pacer" then clearly joked when he suggested he might employ the tactic with out-and-out speedsters Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in the coming Test.

"Yeah I might go up to 'Starcy' this week," Carey said, in full knowledge Australia's spearhead was unlikely to view it in the same welcoming manner as Boland.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: Australia won by 184 runs

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

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), 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