Will Australia have the Galle to play just one fast bowler in Sri Lanka - Starc or Boland for solitary role?

Australia paid the price the last time they were in Sri Lanka for failing to adapt to the conditions. 

Will they be bold enough this time around to go into the upcoming two Tests at Galle with just one specialist fast bowler on the turning track?

And if so, will it be Mitchell Starc or Scott Boland who misses out?

When the Aussies last toured in 2022, Starc and captain Pat Cummins managed just two wickets between them in the first innings of the opening Test at the Galle spinner’s paradise. 

Starc was smashed out of the attack in the second dig, with his two overs going for 23 runs. Cummins, wisely as a skipper and to save himself a belting, opened with Nathan Lyon and did not bowl in the second innings as Australia cruised to a 10-wicket win.

Lyon and Mitchell Swepson snared eight wickets in the first innings and Travis Head chimed in with a career-best 17-ball spell of 4-10 with his under-used off-spinners, prompting the hot index finger celebration which he revived during the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy series when he broke a key partnership by removing Rishabh Pant. 

Even though they also had fast-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green in the line-up to serve as a second seamer (he did not bowl at all in the first match), the Aussies stuck with Starc and Cummins for the second match, also played at Galle.

This time around, despite centuries to Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith on day one, Australia suffered a rare innings defeat after their conceding a whopping 554 on the back of Dinesh Chandimal’s unbeaten double ton before being bowled out for 155.

All but two of the 20 Australian wickets fell to spin as the Sri Lankans exploited their home-ground advantage with an absolute bunsen burner which ragged from the get-go.

Scott Boland celebrates after dismissing Nitish Kumar Reddy. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

If the Aussies expect to see anything else when the groundstaff unveil the wicket for the first Test next week then they deserve to lose.

With Cummins staying home to rest his sore ankle and await the birth of his second child, Starc, Boland and uncapped NSW veteran Sean Abbott are the three pace options on tour. 

Green’s still out after back surgery but towering Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster showed in his debut at the SCG recently that he is more than capable of troubling Test batters with his seamers. 

Lyon, fellow off-spinner Todd Murphy and left-arm tweaker Matt Kuhnemann – if he proves his fitness after breaking his right thumb in the BBL last week – are the three frontline spinners who should be in the XI. 

If Kuhnemann is ruled out, chief selector George Bailey said they had considered Swepson and fellow wrist-spinners Adam Zampa and Tanveer Sangha from NSW and South Australia’s Lloyd Pope before announcing the initial squad and the Queenslander should get the nod over the uncapped trio.

So the final make-up of the bowling attack is likely to come down to a choice between Starc’s experience in subcontinental conditions versus Boland’s red-hot form. 

Starc’s form fell away significantly at the tail end of the five-match series against India – he soldiered on despite a back injury in Melbourne and probably should have been rested for the final Test at the SCG but with the trophy on the line, the Aussies kept the faith. 

His record in Sri Lanka is superb for a seamer – in five matches he has taken 29 wickets at 17.48 since his first tour to the island nation in 2016.

He produced stunning match figures of 11-113, including 6-50 in the second innings, in a match in which only two other wickets went to fast bowlers.

Starc’s ability to produce prodigious swing with the new and old ball, when he’s on song, means it will be extremely difficult to leave him out of the line-up.

Mitchell Starc celebrates with teammates after dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Boland’s case for selection rests on his ability to extract seam movement in the form of off-cutters to right-handers which move away from lefties on pretty much any surface.

It’s worth remembering that this is a bowler who managed to thrive at Sheffield Shield level for Victoria when playing at the MCG when the surface was low and slow, seemingly offering very little to anyone given the thankless task of running into the bowling crease.

His recent haul of 21 wickets at 13.19 in three Tests against India were arguably even more impressive than his three-match Ashes feats in his debut series three years ago when he bagged 18 at 9.55 given the relative strengths of the two batting units he was up against.

England were a rabble whereas at least India had several big names as well as a couple of in-form young guns in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Kumar Reddy. 

Boland has never played a Test in Sri Lanka and he went wicketless in his only match on the subcontinent in the first match of the 2023 India tour. 

You hate to say it but it looks like when the team is announced next week that Australia’s unluckiest bowler, perhaps of all time, is in for another dose of misfortune.