Scott Boland replaces Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith v Kagiso Rabada, should Travis Head keep opening the batting?, scores, results, video, highlights

Scott Boland’s recall in place of Nathan Lyon was the big talking point on an opening day of the second Test in Gqeberha ruined by rain.

Boland made his presence felt with two wickets in two balls to leave South Africa 2/20 after 12.2 overs following Australian captain Pat Cummins winning the toss and giving his four-pronged pace attack first use of a wet, green pitch.

Watch Australia’s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

The decision to once again leave out a specialist spinner raised eyebrows, however, as Australia’s ageing team continued to break new ground despite a great’s belief that two changes were to the side that won in Durban were in order.

South Africa pulled some selection surprises of their own with a returning superstar set to create the most intriguing battle of the series when he goes head-to-head with an Australian champion later in the Test.

While another prolific Australian batter has arrived at crunch time for big career move.

Scroll down for the biggest talking points from day one of the second Test!

WRAP: Shock inclusion SO close to hat-trick as wet weather chaos halts Aussie charge

‘TOUGH’ CALL AUSSIES HAD TO MAKE

Nathan Lyon had a rugby league ball in his hands as Scott Boland painted his mark on the St George’s Park outfield on Sunday morning in Gqeberha.

To everyone at the ground, it signalled that Australia’s selectors had made their call and it was one that has been coming for some time.

Australia’s second most prolific Test wicket-taker has not been left out of a red ball Test when fit since he was surprisingly dumped for a young Ashton Agar in the first two Tests of the 2013 Ashes in England.

But recent trends show that the Australian hierarchy have an itchy finger when it comes to unleashing a four-pronged pace attack like the West Indies did in their glory days.

Australia have left out a specialist spinner in five of their last ten Tests.

The experiment began in Jamaica last year when Boland took a hat-trick, Mitchell Starc took 6/9 as Australia rolled the West Indies for 27 in their second innings to win in two days with the pink ball.

Lyon was filthy two Tests later when he was left out at the Gabba for another day/night Ashes affair despite the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

After the 38-year-old injured his hamstring in Adelaide, it was understudy Todd Murphy who was overlooked in Melbourne and Sydney.

Another green surface in Mackay had Cummins quickly backflip on the eve of the second Test against Bangladesh in August.

Cummins told reporters that Australia would name their team at the toss as the selectors weighed up Lyon versus Boland, but less than an hour later the XI was announced with the tweaker holding his place for a two-day Test.

Spinners being pushed to the fringes by grassy surface is a dagger to the heart of the slow bowling community across the country.

The late great Shane Warne would be turning in his grave as he always insisted that if it seamed, it spun.

Former Australian leg spinner Kerry O’Keeffe has regularly expressed his outrage whenever the topic of leaving Lyon out of the side has been raised.

He did so again before play began on Kayo Sports.

“If you start to select teams on a weather forecast, it’s a dangerous prospect,” O’Keeffe said.

“It’s like Ringo Starr has a bad night on the drums, did the Beatles drop him?”

Australian great, and former selector Mark Waugh, was more in line with the thinking of the Australian selectors, however.

“Would South Africa rather face Nathan Lyon or Scott Boland? They’d say Lyon,” Waugh said.

“He averages 18 in Test cricket. If the conditions suit, he should be playing. It’s tough on Lyon but it’s a fair call.”

Waugh’s assessment, and that of the Australian hierarchy, was vindicated when Cummins threw Boland the ball when play restarted following a rain delay.

The Victorian splattered Aiden Markram’s stumps everywhere with a trademark nip-backer before nicking off South Africa’s No.3 David Bedingham for a golden duck with an absolute peach.

Bedingham certainly was not expecting to be facing Boland after speaking on Friday about the challenges posed by Australia’s revered quartet.

“I was actually speaking to my friends about it, and it’s like in first-class cricket, you face like a decent bowler, and then there’s maybe another decent one, and then maybe you can cash in later with the third or fourth one,” the Protea said.

“But I was just saying, like, you get through six balls of Cummins, and then you look and it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s Starc, and then you get through their spell, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, flip, it’s Hazlewood and Lyon.

“So it’s tough, but I think we have faced them before. Hopefully we can just do it for longer periods of time.”

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma survived the hat-trick ball, not without a nervy inside edge onto his pad, and the burst of two wickets in two balls showed that seam will have a greater impact on this Test than spin.

“It is an amazing advert for the type of bowler Boland is,” South African great Vernon Philander said on SEN.

“He has a completely different skill set and I can also guarantee you that he has been the most effective bowler out of the lot.”

If part-time spin is needed for Australia, Matt Renshaw, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Marnus Labuschagne and Nic Maddinson all rolled the arm over in Durban.

This was primarily a conditions based selection with little spin expected to be required on a damp, green pitch.

It worked out nicely for Australia to win the toss and bowl first, but the decision to Boland was about more than day one.

Lyon failing to take a wicket as Hazlewood took six in the fourth innings at Kingsmead may have been a contributing factor.

“Boland takes his wickets at 12 in the final innings. It’ll hurt me. It’ll hurt Nathan Lyon, but that’s why,” O’Keeffe said.

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OLD MAN’S GAME

It is a certainty when Australia tours England next winter that the focus of the Fleet St tabloids will be on the age of the tourists featuring against South Africa in Gqeberha.

For the second time in history, every member of the Australian XI was over the age of 30, which followed a landmark moment in the first Test of the series in Durban last week.

Incredibly given the appearance of Scott Boland, who became the oldest specialist fast bowler to play in a Test for Australia since Ray Lindwall in 1960, this XI was younger.

The Victorian, aged 37, is more than a year younger than Nathan Lyon, who turns 39 in just over a month, hence the slightest dip in the age.

But it is not only Australia who is packing experience, with eight members of the South African XI also aged 30 or older, making this Test the most experienced by age in a century.

The record of 20 was set in a Test between Australia and England in Nottingham in 1926, while the four other occasions where there were 19 wickets occurred in the 1920s as well.

‘THE GAME IS…’

At the scene of the infamous shoulder bump eight years ago, the battle between South Africa’s champion fast bowler and Australia’s legendary batsman is set to spark the series to life.

It was all a little too friendly in Durban.

The small crowds did not create an intimidating atmosphere and Australia’s dominance from the time Pat Cummins walked to the crease on day one to Josh Hazlewood took the final wicket on day five meant the Proteas failed to fire a shot in response.

That is set to change in Gqeberha.

“The game is Kagiso Rabada against that brittle batting line-up and Steve Smith,” former Australian leg spinner Kerry O’Keeffe said on Kayo Sports.

“Six times in international cricket he’s got him out – four caught wicketkeeper and two lb plonks. Kagiso Rabada hits the seam, when he’s in the mood, better than anybody in world cricket.”

The bump is often remembered better than their gripping battles.

Rabada was initially suspended before having his ban overturned, much to the anger of the Australians – who would blow up the series in the next Test in Cape Town when Cameron Bancroft was caught with sandpaper.

O’Keeffe believes the bump was overblow.

“It was a brush,” he said before joking that it would not have started a fight in a pub.

Australian great Mark Waugh was not so sure.

“It was a sin bin, ten minutes,” he replied.

Regardless, what has been fierce is Rabada and Smith’s battles between bat and ball.

In Test cricket, Rabada has taken Smith’s wicket times at an average of 39.25.

He has not had Smith’s measure, but the Australians know all too well the threat Rabada poses after he took 11 wickets at St George’s Park in 2018.

“We saw him in Australia last series, he didn’t bowl particularly well. But when he gets on a roll, he’s very aggressive, a momentum bowler,” Waugh said.

“He’s got a great record. He’s the danger to Australia.”

CHANGE AUSSIES SHOULD HAVE MADE

As the rain drizzled in Gqeberha on Sunday morning, Cooper Connolly was out in the middle of St George’s Park keeping himself active with a soccer ball.

The Western Australian showed good touch with his feet as he volleyed the ball about with Josh Inglis, expending some energy while preparing for a long wait.

Being on the fringe of selection can be frustrating and Connolly must be pondering how a series where he appeared a chance to play is slipping by without any involvement from him.

Given the conditions, replacing Nathan Lyon with Scott Boland looked a logical call, even if it was the first time the off-spinner has been overlooked for a red ball Test since 2013.

But former Australian selector Mark Waugh believes the Australians could have made a second selection when bringing Cooper Connolly in to replace Beau Webster.

His theory was that the left-hander would offer a point of difference with the ball given his ability to turn the ball the other way to Webster and part-time Matthew Renshaw.

The presence of the quartet of Australian quicks also meant that Webster was unlikely to bowl anywhere near as regularly.

“I would have played him in this game. I would have played him instead of Webster,” Waugh said on Kayo Sports coverage of the Australia vs South Africa Tests.

“Webster’s batting seven. He’s not going to bowl whereas Connolly might have bowled a few overs.

“I see him as a real talent. He’s got a high ceiling. He’s going to be a player for a long time. He hasn’t made a first class yet, but I would have given him a go.”

Kerry O’Keeffe also believes a case could be made to play Connolly in front of Webster, who was unbeaten in his second innings in Durban when Australia was making quick runs.

“This is a kid with a gift for cricket,” O’Keeffe added.

“He’s not the best player of spin at the moment, but he will get better. He got five wickets in an ODI without turning a ball, that’s a gift.

“The thing is, I like way the ball soars off his bat. You see (Vaibhav) Sooryavanshi, the Indian kid, and you see people like (Brian) Lara and the ball just takes off. It just keeps going like a plane taking off. I think he’s a special player, Cooper Connolly.”

‘OUR LUCK WILL RUN OUT’

His record is fantastic, but crunch time has arrived for Travis Head the opener – outside of the subcontinent.

The dashing left-hander averages 48.09 from 22 Test innings at the top of the order and scored three incredible centuries during last summer’s Ashes triumph.

But following scores of 11, 9, 22, 17 and 22 in his last five Test innings, the Australians may look to abandon their ploy of the South Australian taking on the new ball.

It is a role he has done successfully in India and Sri Lanka, where Head has taken a leaf out of his ballistic white-ball game to get the scoreboard moving before the spinners can really take a stranglehold on the game.

Australia became wedded to the move when Head blasted an unforgettable, match-winning ton in the fourth innings of the first Ashes Test in Perth.

Head entered Optus Stadium like a WWE wrestler as he unexpectedly partnered Jake Weatherald due to Usman Khawaja’s back spasm.

It was an innings that has gone down in Australian folklore, but former Australian leg spinner Kerry O’Keeffe believe that knock should not make Head a permanent opener.

“This is village, yahoo slogging. It wasn’t opening the batting,” he said on Kayo Sports.

“You’ve got to be judged as an opening bat by what you do on day one, when the pitch is at its freshest and that’s where the question marks are being asked of Travis Head,” O’Keeffe added.

Head was strangled down the leg side in the first innings in Durban before he was caught at mid on via a leading edge in the second dig.

It followed three innings against Bangladesh where he chopped on as a result of an angled bat and trying to force deliveries through the off side.

Head avoided having to bat on a fresh pitch as Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl, but whenever he does get to the crease, he will need to show a tighter defensive game.

“Technique is not his strong suit. He’s just a hitter of the ball,” Australian great Mark Waugh said on Kayo Sports.

“Hard to tell whether he’s in or out of form. Some of his best innings, you go back to the World Cup final, the 100 in Adelaide, his first 20 runs were absolutely terrible and then all of a sudden, he gets a hundred.

“He’s a hard player to read, but at the moment, his dismissals are bad. They are so loose the shots. They are not good enough for a player of his quality.”

With huge series to come in the year ahead – four Tests at home against New Zealand, five Tests in India, the 150th anniversary Test at the MCG and an Ashes series in England – Waugh believes the Australian team cannot continue to gamble with one of their most important players if he does not turn things around.

“At the moment, the bowlers are winning us games and it’s covering up the batting deficiency,” Waugh said.

“The Australians will say ‘we’re winning, so what are you worried about?’. I think our luck will run out eventually.”

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SOUTH AFRICA’S SELECTION SURPRISES

As much as the selection focus was on the Australians after the decision to choose Boland over Lyon, it is worth noting that the Proteas have taken a series of gambles with their XI.

Much will rest on the ability of Kagiso Rabada to rattle the Australians and while the star fast bowler has endured a lengthy rehabilitation since injuring a hamstring in August, he is still a watch in his first Test match in 12 months.

The superstar looked in good spirits before play and similarly to Connolly, showed good touch with the soccer ball, at one stage recording 49 straight knocks to himself while walking from the ground shortly before the national anthems were played.

South Africa also took a gamble on opening with debutant Marques Ackerman given he had never batted in the position in 134 previous matches, having predominantly been a No.3 or 4.

Considered an aggressive batter, the 30-year-old played and missed with a wild swing in the infancy of Boland’s decisive spell but showed defensive intent when reaching five from 32 balls.

The other big surprise was the choice of local off-spinner Simon Harmer over Keshav Maharaj, who was considered the Proteas leading slow ball performer leading into the series.

It is the first time Maharaj has been legitimately dropped from the Test team since his debut in 2016, according to local journalist Telford Vice, who noted that when he has missed in the past, it was due to the Proteas adopting an all-seam attack.

Harmer’s average at St George’s Park is superior but he has only played one Test at what is his home ground compared to the seven played by Maharaj.