Boland wants to put Rahul under pressure before Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Australian seamer Scott Boland wants to put some early pressure on KL Rahul before the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Indian middle-order batter, alongside Dhruv Jurel, is set to feature in the second Australia A-India A encounter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, starting on November 7 (Thursday).

Rahul was recently dropped from India’s playing XI after the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru, in which he scored 0 and 12. The 32-year-old has a century in Australia but, despite that, averages just 20.77 in five Tests Down Under.

"I was lucky to bowl to him in a Test over in India a couple of years ago but it'll be nice to play against him in our backyard. He's a world-class player but someone I think we can get on top of pretty early and hopefully stay on top of him for the majority of the summer,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Boland as saying. 

Boland didn’t play the first game against India A in Mackay, which Australia A won by seven wickets. The right-arm seamer was out of action for a few months due to a heel injury but recently featured in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield encounter against New South Wales. He bowled 28 overs in the game and took three wickets, including the wicket of Steven Smith.

Despite averaging close to 12 with the ball in six Tests in Australia, Boland didn’t get a single game in the last home season, thanks to the durability of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. Boland, however, is likely to feature at some stage of the five-match Test series against India, starting on November 22 in Perth.

"It felt like a long six months between games. Remember being out on the ground in the Shield game and was just really happy to be back playing cricket. Haven't had too many breaks for injury throughout my career so was different going through all the rehab,” said Boland

"Luckily (we've) got really good physios and support staff at Cricket Victoria. So lucky I could lean on them, because few times I was like, '(are) any of these things getting better? But it's all come good now and feeling really good."

Boland knows India are coming into this series after being humiliated by New Zealand at home, but the seamer isn’t looking too much into it. "There's so much more bounce here, more seam. The way they'll structure their team will be completely different to what you see over in India."

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