
Scott Boland not bothered by England comments towards him as he is concentrating on his own personal motivations.
Scott Boland says he’s not driven by comments that England’s batters don’t fear him.
Boland was asked the obvious question in his post-match interview with a group of reporters shortly after he had scythed through New South Wales to take a match-winning 5 for 67 to go with his 3 for 59 in the first innings to help Victoria win the Sheffield Shield in an exciting match at the Junction Oval.
Given how they used him in England two years ago, Boland was asked if he had ever read former England captain Michael Atherton write in the Times that he “holds no fear” for England’s batting lineup.
“I saw it. My cousin sent it to me. He [Boland’s cousin] was taking the piss,” Boland said. “I’m sure there’s going be so much banter between the former players in between now and the first test and even the end of the summer.”
He was asked if it motivated him at all ahead of the Ashes.
“Not really,” Boland said. “I’ve got my own internal motivations for what I want to do for the summer. I’ve never gone into a game where I’m just middling along. I guess there’s always some motivation for me to try and either come into the team and try to put in a really good performance, to try and keep my spot. There’s so many good fast bowlers in Australia that you just don’t want to give anyone an inch. So that’s sort of my goal when I’m playing Test cricket.”
The 35-year-old Boland always talks like a man looking in from the outside. However, after replacing Nathan Lyon in their most recent Test match in Jamaica as part of a four-man pace attack, he is currently an incumbent in Australia’s Test XI. In the final Test over he bowled, he actually took a Test hat-trick.
Even though Lyon is scheduled to return for the first Test match against England in Perth, it is becoming more and more probable that he will keep his spot. Captain Pat Cummins stated that it is “less likely than likely” that he would be able to participate as he continues to recover slowly from a back injury.
Boland said he had not spoken to Cummins in several months. But he was not expecting the skipper to miss all five Tests.
“Patty’s so resilient,” Boland said. “He can play through a little bit of pain if he has some. Those guys play so much cricket there’s bound to be games where someone misses out. But if Pat happens to not play the first game, we’ve got a pretty handy in coming in at some stage during the summer.”
